From his relationship to his diet to his fitness regime, there is very little that goes unnoticed from Virat Kohli’s day-to-day life. And why not? After all, he is the skipper of the most demanding cricket team in the world.
His meteoric rise as arguably the best batsman in the world right now has made him the poster-boy of Indian cricket and so it’s absolutely not surprising to see him under the media scanner throughout.
And while there is very little that is unknown about his current life, few know how the India skipper was during his early days in the game. The 28-year old is known for his aggressive and no-nonsense approach in the cricket field but he was exactly the opposite of it during his Under-19 days. And it was revealed by none other than batting legend and Kohli’s ex-teammate Virender Sehwag.
Recalling how shy and quiet Kohli was in front of his senior teammates, Sehwag told Star Sports:
“He was a shy and quiet youngster in front of us senior players but when he was in the U-19 team he used to be very very naughty. I’ve heard a lot of stories about how naughty he was from his U-19 coach Ajit Chaudhary.”
“Once Chaudhary told me that Kohli fell ill or was play acting so his coach told him that he wouldn’t play in the next match. And suddenly Kohli’s fever went away and he became absolutely fine after hearing that, started batting normally the way he does in the nets also. He played the next match and smashed a double hundred,” he added.
Sehwag further revealed when he heard about Kohli for the first time. Recalling that he heard about Kohli from Pradeep Sangwan, who was Kohli’s teammate when India U-19 won the World Cup in 2008, Sehwag said that he initially did not believe about Kohli’s batting potential but changed his mind when that latter batted with him during a T20 match.
“The first time I heard about Virat Kohli was in Najafgarh where there was another player around 16-17 years of age who used to bowl to me, his name was Pradeep Sangwan. I heard Virat Kohli and Ishant Sharma’s name from the first time from him, Kohli especially,” Sehwag said. “He told me that if you want to watch a player you should watch Virat Kohli. He told me how brilliant Kohli was as a batsman. Initially, I thought Sangwan was just bragging about his friend.”
“But when I saw Virat Kohli play for the first time – he came out to bat with me in a T20 match and played a backfoot punch shot piercing the gap through long on and long off for a four, that was when I felt this boy has some serious talent. After that, he didn’t look back and within one year he broke into the Indian team,” Sehwag added.