Virat Prem Nath Kohli who is currently captaining the Indian cricket team across all the 3 formats is not an unknown figure to any but is known majorly for his consistency, his unflagging hunger to outperform himself everytime, his aggression and intensive passion on the field and is always in talks because of the fitness regime that he follows. Let’s take a deeper dig into the Fitness Mantra the sportsman has not only followed himself but also continued to advocate, over the years, amongst his fellow counterparts and the young enthusiasts who wish to play the sport at an international level.

We are all well familiar with the Chubby Cheeku who led the Indian side to a victorious 2008 U-19 World Cup. Often he is bombarded with questions from the curious interviewers as to how did he manage to transform so miraculously? To which his answer is subtle yet sublime. He says that the realisation hit back in 2012 when during the IPL months, he realised, looking at himself in the mirror, that this is not how an international cricketer should look like. That’s where the journey to transform began mentally for him. Nextly, the diet had to change and the Delhi-born Punjabi Munda made a firm decision to give up on his all-time favourite Chole Bhature and other delicacies. The first three months were dreadful. Virat told Jatin Sapru in an interview for Star Sports that he had to eat boiled Kabuli chana and for a person whose taste buds are accustomed to having spicy food, it was no less than a disaster. But he didn’t give it up then, despite the temptations, knowing in his head that this shall soon become a habit and get easier and is now reaping the fruits, which the whole sporting world is a witness of.

We have heard Virat giving away the major credit to Shankar Basu, on several occasions, who was his fitness coach working with him in RCB. Although, Virat was initially quite reluctant to lift weights due to sustaining back issues and do the other types of exercises to strengthen the lower body, he kept following Mr Basu’s instructions and soon felt the body exceeding its previous limits. He was able to run swiftly between the wickets and during fielding, the match recovery was happening quickly and everything else seemed to fall in place. It’s more of a mental struggle than it is physically. The mindset has to be right and the energy has to be channelized towards the bigger picture, which for him, has always been the victory of the team and not individual milestones. And that is the major reason behind why the transformation happened so smoothly. Virat has truly been an epitome of relentless towards fitness because to him, it isn’t any special or out of the box thing, but a basic requirement of his job. He has been very strict with his nutritional intake to such an extent that if he would feel really drained out post big innings in a test match, he only affords to have a gluten-free dark chocolate bar to ensure just enough supply of energy and speeden up the recovery process for the next day. No Sweets please!!! He has always been so adamant about his exercising routines even during this lockdown which his social media profiles are a living proof of and all of that requires a lot of self control, dauntlessness and that desire to always be one of the bests in the world, which for sure he has become.

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Taking inspiration from him are many, his teammates like Dhawan, Ashwin etc , the younger players like Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav Hardik Pandya, KL Rahul, Navdeep Saini, Shubman Gill etc are repeatedly seen acknowledging their captain for raising the bar and being a constant source of motivation to them and so many other future-cricketers of India. “Virat Kohli is like lion, his hunger is never-ending”, Shreyas Iyer was quoted as saying. The admiration and appreciation is not just confined to the junior lot but also a lot of senior players like Sachin Tendulkar and Sir Vivian Richards regard Kohli for bringing about a fitness revolution in not just India but globally and across all sports.

We are proud of you Captain Kohli for setting such a high benchmark in terms of keeping fit which has only taken Indian Cricket forward and we at Eduindex News wish you and your Indian Cricket Team all the very best for the forthcoming matches.

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