If there is one player in the current Indian cricket team who stands out for his meteoric rise and whose leadership skills made him a fan favorite with the whole country then it is undoubtedly India captain Virat Kohli.
Virat Kohli slammed 1381 runs in 2011 with four centuries and eight half-centuries. (Express Archive)
Virat Kohli burst on to the scene in 2008 when he made his international debut on August 18. It certainly wasn’t a memorable occasion as he was dismissed cheaply for 18 in his first innings against Sri Lanka. A year later, Kohli hit his maiden hundred against the same opponent in Kolkata in 2009, signaling his arrival on the international scene.
Impressed with his performances, the U-19 World Cup-winning captain was included in the World Cup squad in 2011. In the all-important final, Kohli scored a crucial 35 as India went on to complete a successful 275-run chase against Sri Lanka at Wankhede Stadium. The image of Virat Kohli carrying Sachin Tendulkar on his shoulders that night was probably a sign of things to come.
In 2012, when Tendulkar was asked who would break his record of 100 international tons, the cricket maestro had said, “I think those who can, are sitting in this room only. I can see those youngsters. Virat and Rohit are the ones. As long as an Indian breaks it, I don’t mind.” By then, 7 ODI centuries had shown enough of the spark and commitment Virat Kohli had. He slammed 1381 runs in 2011, with four centuries and eight half-centuries.
With scores of 1, 8, 25, 0, 39, 28, 0,7, 6 and 20 in the five Tests, Virat Kohli averaged a nightmarish 13.50 in his 10 innings in England during the 2014 tour. (AP FILE)
Building on the success of the World Cup triumph, Kohli launched himself on the international arena and barring two seasons- 2015 and 2016 – he managed to score more than 1000 ODI runs in each calendar year.
However, one can never predict when form will desert a batsman, leaving them in a slump.
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Kohli, who is among the fittest sportspersons in the world, has admitted how a poor Indian Premier League (IPL) season in 2012 and a dismal show in England in 2014 were big learning curves in his career.
Later in 2013, he would also go on to admit that he had lost focus around the time he played in his first IPL. The glamour and after-parties got to him as he lost his place in the Indian side subsequently. That’s when Kohli decided to get away from everything for one-and-a-half years and focus all his attention on cricket and claw his way back into the Indian team.
With scores of 1, 8, 25, 0, 39, 28, 0,7, 6 and 20 in the five Tests, Kohli averaged 13.50 in his 10 innings in England. Reflecting on this period, Kohli had said, “I have gone through a phase in my career where I had felt that it was the end of the world. I just didn’t know what to do and what to say to anyone, How to speak, how to communicate.”
But superstars are those who rise like a phoenix from the ashes. After the England series, Kohli never had a dull moment in his international career. The India captain made amends for it by topping the batting charts when India went to England in 2018. Kohli hit 593 runs in 10 innings and smashed 2 centuries, burying the ghosts of past failures in the United Kingdom.
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Virat Kohli’s numbers speak for his insurmountable rise. (Express Archive)
Taking over the reins from MS Dhoni as the Test side’s captain in 2014, he led the team to major victories in the longest format. After a superb series in South Africa and England in 2018, Kohli’s boys became the first Indian side to win a Test series in Australia when they completed a 2-1 win Down Under earlier this year.
Kohli has also been breaking records at will across all formats. With 70 hundred, Kohli is just 30 behind Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 100 hundreds. Meanwhile, Kohli, the top-ranked batsman in ODIs and Tests, also became the first batsman to score 20,000 runs in a decade. Former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting held the record for scoring most international runs in a decade with 18,962 to his credit in the 2000s.
Virat Kohli this decade:
🏏 5,775 more international runs than anyone else 🤯
🏏 22 more international hundreds than anyone else 😮 pic.twitter.com/u1ZA97ARRn
— ICC (@ICC) December 24, 2019
From ODIs to Tests and T20Is, Virat Kohli has been the leading run-getter in the decade. Currently, he sits on the throne of several world records – most double hundreds (6) by a captain, fastest to 10,000 ODI runs (10 years 67 days), most 100s (6) by a captain in a calendar year in ODIs, best conversion rate as captain in ODIs (52.50%), best win % by an Indian captain in Test matches (56.52%) and most runs in the world (2633) in T20Is.
Coach Duncan Fletcher’s pep talk pushed Virat Kohli to be a fitness freak. (Express Archive and Virat Kohli Insta page)
Kohli’s transformation between 2011 to 2020, from new-age brat to a national hero, was the result of a new dimension which he added to his consciousness.
His improved standard of fitness helped improve his temperament, talent, and performance and in the process, he changed the way cricket is played in India and even elsewhere.
A look through his album will reveal how he transformed himself from a chubby foodie to one of the fittest athletes in the world. And it all started with an impromptu chat with Duncan Fletcher after IPL 2012. It was only after this pep talk that Kohli started taking fitness much more seriously or rather religiously. His training regime and diet completely changed.
Talking about the transformation he had told The Telegraph, “Duncan told me once that he feels cricket is the most unprofessional of professional sports.”
Virat also admitted that it was tough to follow the strict regime initially. He was 11 or 12 kgs heavier than he is right now. But then he started taking the workout seriously and spent hours in the gym with a regulated diet which was off gluten, off wheat, no cold drinks, and no desserts.
From 2015, Kohli changed his training again as he started lifting, snatching, cleaning and deadlifting. The result was evident as he said, ” I remember running after a ball in a Test series in Sri Lanka and I felt more power in my legs.
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It was, like, ‘wow’. This training is addictive. The last year-and-a-half it has taken my game to another level.”
With his top level of fitness, Kohli’s work ethics have also rubbed off on his teammates making India one of the fittest cricketing nations in the world. To step on to the field every time with an equal amount of intensity and hunger to perform is what makes Virat Kohli a cut above the rest.
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