Mahendra Singh Dhoni: Skipper feels Virat Kohli is the man to carry team forward for long time

New Delhi: Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Sunday praised his deputy Virat Kohli and stated that he is the man to carry team forward for a long time.

“Virat is somebody that we'll have to look up to in the future, because he's somebody who will take the team forward for a long time," Dhoni said.

Kohli has been in supreme form and struck a well made 117 in the third ODI against Australia which the visitors lost by three wickets. Kohli built on his two half-centuries from the first two ODIs and struck a fluent ton. This was his 24th career ODI century.

Dhoni highlighted Kohli's improvement and stated that he is the best amongst Indian batsmen in the shorter format alongside Rohit Sharma.

"He has consistently performed and improved his performance. He is the best amongst the Indian batsmen, along with Rohit in the shorter format.”

The skipper also was impressed with the way Kohli paced his innings and lauded him for reading the game well.

“Today the way he paced his innings, it was slightly different to the first two games. But he reads the game really well, which I think, is very important in the middle overs.”

Virat alongside Rohit and Ajinkya Rahane have been India's best showers with the bat in the series so far and India will take these as few of the positives from an otherwise disappointing tour so far.

(With inputs from PTI)