Kohli-Dhoni Reunion: Kohli and Pant arrive at Dhoni's home in Ranchi; Thala himself escorts the King to the hotel

Indian cricket fans witnessed a heartwarming moment in Ranchi late Thursday night. A viral video showed former Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni driving his old teammate and star batsman Virat Kohli in his car. As soon as the video surfaced on social media, it went viral within minutes, and fans began calling it the "reunion of the year."

When Team India comes to Ranchi to play a match, cricketers often visit Dhoni's home, and this tradition continued this time as well. The Indian team arrived in Ranchi to play the ODI series against South Africa, and this meeting took place during that time. Besides Virat, several other players also visited Dhoni at his home, including Rishabh Pant and Ruturaj Gaikwad.

The Internet is on Fire: Emotions Run High

After dinner, Dhoni and Kohli were seen leaving in a car together. Some reports claimed that Dhoni himself dropped Kohli off at the team hotel, although this has not yet been confirmed. Nevertheless, Kohli's smile and Dhoni's simplicity in the video brought back fond memories for fans. Memories of the era when the two were writing a golden chapter in Indian cricket were brought back. Star Sports also shared the video, captioning it "Reunion of the Year." Pant and Ruturaj were also seen entering Dhoni's house for dinner.

King Kohli's Return and Expectations

While the recent tour of Australia had a poor start, Kohli showed signs of his form with an unbeaten 74* in the final match. Rohit Sharma also scored a century. Kohli has an impressive record against South Africa. He has scored 1504 runs in 31 matches against the Proteas, averaging 65.39. Kohli has scored five centuries and eight half-centuries. Overall, in 305 ODIs, Virat has scored 14,255 runs, and with 51 centuries, he holds the record for most centuries by a player in this format.

Gill and Iyer are not part of the series

With two key players for India in this series – regular ODI captain Shubman Gill and vice-captain Shreyas Iyer – out due to injury, Kohli's responsibility has increased. Gill suffered a neck injury during the first Test against South Africa in Kolkata and is currently undergoing further medical tests in Mumbai. India will also miss vice-captain Shreyas Iyer, who is out of action due to injury. Iyer was injured while taking a brilliant catch off Alex Carey during the third ODI against Australia in Sydney.

The series begins under Rahul's captaincy.

India will play a three-match ODI series against South Africa in Ranchi, starting November 30. After the first ODI in Ranchi on November 30, India will play the second match in Raipur on December 3 and the third in Visakhapatnam on December 6. KL Rahul will lead the team in Gill and Iyer's absence. Rahul has so far scored 3092 runs in 88 ODIs at an average of 48.31 and has emerged as a reliable player.

Indian team: Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Tilak Varma, KL Rahul (captain and wicketkeeper), Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper), Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Prasidh Krishna, Arshdeep Singh, Dhruv Jurel.