Promises they say are often made to be broken. But not when you are Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Dhoni may no longer be in charge, but he had promised that he would always be there to guide and give Kohli tips as and when the situation demanded. The Nagpur T20I was one such instance.

Shortly after stepping down from captaincy, MS Dhoni promised to guide captain Virat Kohli ‘unofficially’ as the vice-captain. And he stood by his words by just doing that; he guided Kohli in the last over of the second T20 against England at the VCA stadium, Nagpur.

Last night when the stakes were running high and we needed to prevent boundaries, captain Kohli employed himself to mend the boundary. It was then that he asked his “unofficial vice-captain” to take over.

With only 24 runs needed from the last two overs, Kohli decided to man the long-on boundary and that is when Dhoni took over. With the senior bowler Ashish Nehra alongside, he plotted the win against the English with Bumrah being the man to bowl the last over.

Dhoni took time to set the field as Bumrah marked his run-up to bowl the last over. Even Kohli was seen constantly speaking to Dhoni from the long-on boundary as the former skipper held centre stage. Clearly for that moment at least, Dhoni was in charge on the field. These two go a long way back and even though the leadership has changed hands, the respect Kohli has for his former skipper has not diminished at all.

Virat Kohli said: “It’s just that I am in charge of decisions now and he (Dhoni) will be giving his views. When Dhoni was in-charge, I have always shared my point of view and thoughts with him. Eventually, he has made those decisions. Sometimes it may immediately click and he makes those changes right away. Sometimes he still takes time to follow his instinct more and keep that as option B.

“As cricketers, we understand it is a pretty natural thing to have different perspectives about the game, about captaincy as well. His views will be priceless for me, as well. But I will have my preparation first and keeping his views in mind, maybe I will follow my instinct for a bit more (time) and then maybe switch to a different plan B from a different point of view.”

MS Dhoni kept his promise of guiding the young captain Kohli on the field at crucial moments. As emotional as the victory was for Indian fans, MS Dhoni’s involvement in the decisions makes it all the more special.