MS Dhoni Virat Kohli India
India skipper MS Dhoni and batting star Virat Kohli will need to be at their best to top England in this five-match Test seriesReuters

Former Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has hailed Virat Kohli as the best batsman in the world and has also said that he has reached a status where is very close to being a legend.

Dhoni also appreciated Kohli's captaincy and said that he always looks to take the game forward which is a great trait to have as a skipper.

"He (Kohli) is the best and has already reached a status, where he is close to (being) a legend. So I am very happy for him. And the way he has batted everywhere and in the last few years, he has just been brilliant," said Dhoni at the launch of an application.

"He keeps taking the team forward and that is what you want from a leader. So all the best to him," Dhoni further added.

After the end of the third ODI between England and India, there were intense rumours that Dhoni would walk away from the game after he asked the umpire to hand him the match ball at the end of the game.

However, the former captain said that he just took the ball from the umpire to hand it over the bowling coach in order to decipher why his bowlers could not get reverse swing.

'Can I get the ball and gave it to the bowling coach? We need to work on it as to how we can get it more scuffed up so that we can get a bit of reverse swing going, that will in-turn help the fast bowlers get those yorkers or wickets in and around the 40th over mark. That would really help us restrict the opposition by not getting too many runs in the last 10 overs," Dhoni said.

Speaking about the positives from the Edgbaston Test, Dhoni said that the only to win any Test match was to pick up 20 wickets and the Indian bowlers did it in the first Test and hence they should be confident going ahead in the series.