Royal Challengers Bangalore’s strength and condition coach Basu Shanker heaped a praise on Indian batting maestro Virat Kohli over his work ethic and his importance to fitness in cricket and said that the RCB opener wanted to follow the fitness template of world-class athletes in cricket.
Basu Shanker was regarded as one of the best strength and conditioning coaches in the world and the most sought coach, especially in India. The 54-year-old discontinued his contract with the Indian team following the 2019 ODI World Cup in England.
The former Indian trainer has trained Dinesh Karthik, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Dipika Pallikal during his early days Speaking on the RCB Podcast, about the training of the modern-day great Virat Kohli during his early days.
“Since 2009 I have been seeing him. I remember him coming to me in 2013 and talking. He again came to me in 2014 saying my back is getting stiffened up. It was just 6 weeks and then he came again saying I think you should play a bigger role for us,” Basu Shanker said.
The RCB trainer revealed that he knew that Virat Kohli would definitely benefit from athletic training programs, which the top athletes would use to train at the global level and Kohli wanted him to treat as an individual athlete rather than having regular training of that other cricketers.
“I knew this fellow (Virat Kohli) will benefit from the athletic template I had and finally he decided and said whatever you say, we’ll start, We started athletic work in 2014, and he went to the Indian team, came back in 2015. You have to train like an Olympic athlete. I used to quote Novak Djokovic then,”
Virat Kohli is a known fitness freak in Indian Team and has brought a new fitness regime to the Indian team during his stint as captain, which eventually helped Indian pacers to bowl exceptionally well in the overseas condition.
Basu Shanker Sir Is The Best S&C Coach I’ve Worked With – Virat Kohli
Earlier, Virat Kohli gave a lot of credit to Basu Shanker for his improvement in fitness standard and rated him as the best strength and conditioning coach he worked him, Kohli played a vital role in bringing Basu Shanker to the Royal Challengers Bangalore team.
“Basu sir is the best S&C coach I’ve worked with, and his ability to make you feel at ease with his template is amazing. Never have I worked with someone who knew exactly how to transform my physique and performance according to my needs, not through a set template that was common to everyone,” Virat Kohli said.
With the kind of fitness, Virat Kohli is currently in at the age of 34, he would look to continue to play at the highest level for the 4 to 5 years.