Batting maestro Virat Kohli is all set to unlock another achievement on Thursday as the opening Test match between India and Sri Lanka is going to be his 100th. The 33-year-old has been a consistent performer for India in Test cricket and during his captaincy tenure, he took the team to greater heights. So far in 99 Tests, Kohli has scored 7962 runs which include 27 centuries and 28 half-centuries. However, the journey of the run-machine started when the young version of Kohli led India’s U19 team to the World Cup triumph in 2008. The charismatic batter instantly came into the limelight after guiding India to their second U19 WC title at that time.
Ahead of Kohli’s historic Test, his former U-19 teammates revealed that the winning team has a WhatsApp Group named ‘Under 19 Champions’. Several players in a conversation with Indian Express revealed that the group is quite active and they often pull legs of each other including Kohli’s.
Iqbal Abdulla recalled a memory when Kohli lost his temper on him and the left-arm spinner said that they still laugh about that and pull Kohli’s legs.
“As captain, Kohli had got so involved in a World Cup game that he forgot he had changed my field position. I was at deep midwicket and when the batsman hit the ball to square-leg, he sent me to field there. Soon, the ball went to midwicket, and Kohli lost his temper. I had to remind him of the sequence of events. We still have a laugh about that,” Abdulla told Indian Express.
“Memes and jokes are passed on to everyone. No one is spared,” he says.
Tanmay Srivastava was the one who made the group as he talked about how former players used to taunt Kohli about his attitude but the batting maestro silenced them with his performances.
“People used to say, ‘look, he has attitude issues’. But when he began to perform, his attitude became aggression in their eyes! Many former players used to say, ‘bada khalifa ban gaya hai (he has become a big player)’. It was a comment on his attitude, as they saw it. But with consistent performances, everything changed. Now the same people say he is a confident guy,” said Srivastava.
Srivastava was Kohli’s senior and he often addressed him as ‘bhaisaab’ during his childhood days. He was Kohli’s captain in the tune-up to U-19 World Cup.
Srivastava said every player in that squad was a match-winner but Kohli’s never gives up attitude made him different from others.
“We were all match-winners in that team but he was different because of his aggression. He was ready to take on anyone, without blinking. A rare quality, especially as no one then was used to such an attitude. He was different for sure, he had that X-factor, the spirit, the attitude of never giving up,” he said.
Pacer Pradeep Sangwan walked down the memory lane and recalled how Kohli used to be a foodie during his initial days of cricket and all of it was changed when they both played together Ranji Trophy in 2010.
“He used to eat a lot. Mutton-rice, everything. He would even walk for kilometres to go to various food joints; the only thing that mattered was taste,” said Sangwan.
When did that change? “In 2010, when he came to play for the Delhi Ranji team, everything was different. He was eating boiled food! He wouldn’t drink more than 200 ml of liquid at a time. Rice-mutton curry had been replaced with diet food. I was surprised at how much he had changed himself,” he said.
Wicketkeeper batter Shreevats Goswami heaped praise on Kohli’s determination towards the game.
“I used to meet him during the IPL and he never missed his fitness session. Most of the time, I saw him working out in the gym. His focus was way ahead of all of us. Often, cricketers do get lazy and have a ‘cheat day’ but Virat would never do that,” he said.
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