There is no doubt that Dhoni should be a part of the team: Virat Kohli

Adelaide, January 15: Virat Kohli underlined his belief in MS Dhoni saying the former captain's place in the side is non-negotiable. Dhoni made an unbeaten to guide India past the rope in the second ODI as the visitors levelled the series 1-1. The series-deciding final one-dayer will be held at Melbourne on Friday.

"There is no doubt that he should be a part of the team. Tonight was an MS classic. He takes the game till the end, when only he knows what's going on in his mind, and he backs himself to hit those big shots at the end. And hats off to Dinesh too, he came in and took the pressure off him," said Kohli in the post-match presentation where he also collected the man of the match award for his hundred.

Kohli said the dismissal of centurion Shaun Marsh and hard-hitting Glenn Maxwell in the same over turned the tide in favour of India. Bhuvneshwar Kumar accounted for both the batsmen.

"We wanted to try and restrict them in the end. I thought they were going to get away from us when Maxy and Shaun were in. Getting them in two balls was brilliant. I thought 298 was par on that wicket, with the start they had. Bhuvi was outstanding to pull things back for us," he said.

Kohli did not rule out looking into the option of giving a chance to all-rounder Vijay Shankar but said he was chuffed to see the five-bowler strategy coming off.

"Vijay Shankar is in the squad, he's an allrounder, so that gives us an option to play around with - but we'll see how we go. But backing five bowlers and seeing it come off is pleasing as a captain."

About his own knock, Kohli said: "You look for little moments to pump you up, get into the zone, and that's what I was trying to do. I tried to stay as aware as possible in recognising the moment to strike. I thought those 2-3 overs were the moment, to bring the gap between runs and balls down. When it comes off it looks good. It was a really tough day. My pants are white with the sweat, the salts coming out. MS was tired as well, fielding for 50 overs and batting as well, it was tough. So a good day to rest and travel and recover and regroup for the MCG."