Former RCB head coach Simon Katich lauded Virat Kohli for his leadership qualities and fitness routine as he stated that Virat leaves no stone unturned in terms of preparation for any match. Notable that Katich coached RCB for two consecutive seasons in 2020 and 2021.
Speaking to Brad Hogg on his Youtube Channel, Katich spoke on length about Virat Kohli’s influence on youngsters and how he never shies away to giving youngsters his time. Notable that in the last 4 months Virat Kohli had stepped down from his various captaincy stints, first he resigned from RCB captaincy after the conclusion of the last IPL, then stepped down from India T20I captaincy after the conclusion of the T20 World Cup. Then selectors removed him from the ODI captaincy as they wanted one single captain in both white-ball formats. Then a couple of days back he also stepped down from Test captaincy as well.
Virat Kohli stepped down from RCB captaincy after the last IPL season
“It’s a big role captaining an IPL franchise or an international teams since it’s constant meetings, there’s constant decisions that have to be made. It was time consuming and that’s something he was very good with in terms of giving us his time,” Katich said.
“We were really mindful of that and respectful of trying to take the load off him in that respect so as a coaching group we tried to do a lot of the ground work with that and then go to him with a simplified version of how we wanted to go about things, whether it was the game style or whether it was the tactics or selections. So you try to help him out as much as possible given the workload he’s on but. He was very giving of his time,” He added.
Katich also shared an experience of how Kohli’s mentorship helped a youngster like Devdutt Padikkal. The youngster scored 400+ in each of the 2020 and 2021 season.
“We also asked him to mentor one of our younger players and I think he did a magnificent job in what he did with young Padikkal. He’s come on in leaps and bounds over the last two years. Just being able to pass on that experience of what he’s learnt over the last decade of IPL. onto a young player that’s finding his feet at that level but also potentially going to be an international player down the track,” he stated.
Also, Katich shared his work ethics. He stated that Kohli pushes to the maximum limits to prepare for any match. The former coach also revealed that he took his fitness to a whole new level.
“He pushes himself to the maximum. It’s unbelievable. We played in an era where some of the boys were renown for being religious trainers. Virat’s taken it to a whole new level – particularly the work he’s done in the gym. It doesn’t look like he cuts any corners whatsoever. There’s no stone unturned with his physical preparation,” Katich said.
He further talked about how he goes about his mental fitness as well. He also stated that having his family around him helps in his super busy schedule.
“But I think he also spends time on the mental side of things. He had his wife Anushka there and they obviously spend a lot of time together. That was fantastic to see that him in particular spent time with her given how busy he is throughout the year with the Indian job,” he added.