Former chief selector of the BCCI, Dilip Vengsarkar opened up his backing of Virat Kohli in 2008, and how wicket keeper MS Dhoni, who was the captain of the side back then, and Gary Kirsten, who was the coach, were against the decision.

According to Vengsarkar, both Dhoni and Kirsten were keen on picking Tamil Nadu's Subramaniam Badrinath instead. "There was an Emerging Players tour to Australia. The selection committee decided to include only U-23 players for this tour. That year, we had won the U-19 World Cup as well and Virat Kohli was captain of that team. We included him in the Emerging Players team. I had gone to Brisbane to see those matches,” Vengsarkar recalled while speaking at an event in Mumbai.

"Virat opened the innings against West Indies who had a few Test cricketers in their ranks, but we had none and in that match, Virat scored 123 not out. I felt that we should play this guy in the Indian team. I felt this was an ideal situation to include Kohli in the squad. Although the other four selectors agreed with my decision, Gary Kirsten and MS Dhoni were reluctant as they had not seen much of Kohli. I told them that I have seen him and we have to include him in the team,” Vengsarkar added.