It takes a lot to become The Virat Kohli
A journey of a chubby boy who was always being criticized for his aggression and flamboyant attitude and later became an inspiration for the millions in terms of fitness and his approach towards the game.
Well, it all started in 2013 the champion’s trophy that held in England & Wales where under the leadership of former captain M.S.Dhoni team India lifted the trophy that tournament has a totally different story because before the selection process the message from the captain was loud and clear that players who are fit and running will only get the booking in the flight to England & Wales. There were very known faces like Gautam Gambir, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, etc. that were left out, and the team was partially experienced but as MS was known for his unexpected decision that mostly payoff this was being taken and the result was team India didn’t lose a single match including a couple of warm-up games and one more special thing that I would like to add is that the whole squad remain unchanged throughout the whole tournament.
In 2014 Indian team toured England and there was a lot of buzz of the rivalry between Jimmy Anderson and Virat Kohli because until then Virat was been started counted in the modern greats of the game and every one was eager to see how king kohli would respond to the lethal pace attack of the English, but everything got in vain as the twin attack of Anderson & Broad got the better of kohli and the whole batting order of the visitors that tour became a nightmare for Virat as he was also being criticized about not performing well enough and roaming with his girlfriend Anushka Sharma (now wife) but time passed and then another tour that was waiting to test the skills of the modern great was the tour of Australia a lot happened before and in the middle of the tour with both the teams Australian opener Philip Hughes was hit by a ball on the neck in a club match and passed away just before a week to the start of the series the whole nation was in deep sorrow and grief about the incident that had happened but life goes on and the series had started and Virat started it with a bang well there was a small incident that took place when Virat came out to bat in the first test at the Adelaide the first ball he faced hit on his helmet and whole aussies team went straight up to him but after that it was no turning back he scored centuries in both the innings of that test and took the team to a fabulous win and in the whole series he made a mark by scoring four hundreds and totally he scored 692 runs in 8 innings that averaged about 86.5 oh! Boy, that was some series but toward the end of the series, MS Dhoni suddenly announced his retirement from the red-ball cricket, and Virat was handed over the captaincy of the test format.
The year 2015 was expected to be a cracker of a year as the world cup was around the corner and there were a millions of expectations that were riding on the shoulders of Virat Kohli and the start that it got was just like the people had expected the first match of the Indian team in the World Cup was against the arch rivals Pakistan and kohli didn’t disappointed the spectators he stated the tournament by scoring a ton against the neighbors but unfortunately that was the only hundred he scored in the whole tournament and when India made it into the semifinals and when India was chasing the target to 300 plus both people and team India wanted the big match winner to step up on the biggest stage of the game but yet another failure came his way he got out so early that he didn’t made it into the double figures and that costed India the World Cup they lost the match very badly and the whole team had to face the criticism of both fans and media but the main person who was facing the most hardships of them was Virat because a lot was riding on him but he failed.
There is a Saying of one of the best captains of the game that “What doesn’t kill you makes you strong” (MS Dhoni) and definitely, Virat was stronger as a rock and he took all the criticism channelized it into a positive direction and came back in the IPL 2016 with a bang that season proved to be the best season for both the franchise and the captain as he smashed 4 hundred and scored 973 runs in the tournament taking his team all through the final and became the proud holder of the orange cap (this cap is being awarded to the batsmen who is the highest run-getter of the tournament) although his team ended up as the runners up king Kohli surely won the hearts of each and every cricket fan all over the country.
At the start of 2017, a huge responsibility was waiting for Kohli as MS Dhoni captain of the Indian Cricket Team (then) had stepped down from the captaincy right at the start of the year and Virat was made the captain of all three formats. After being made the skipper of the team Virat led the side in the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy that was held in England & Wales and took the team all through the Finals but had to taste the defeat against the arch-rivals Pakistan. But in 2018 under the leadership of Virat India became the No.1 side in the test format and in the same year, he was awarded as the ICC Cricketer of the year and also was voted the test and ODI player of the year it was the first time that all the three awards had won by a single player.
Then in 2019, India has again announced the ICC test No.1 side and it was the third time that India took that ICC test championship mace and proved its consistency in red-ball cricket it was all because of the aggressive mindset of captain Kohli that Indian pacers should generate more pace and for that, they need to change their fitness program altogether and the result of that was in ICC ranking of the bowlers Indian pacers also made their name amongst the other quick bowlers of the world.
Other than cricket Virat has been associated with many other brands of fitness he himself owns the One8 brand that makes energy drinks and other cool stuff he is also involved with children a lot and presses them to leave their smartphones and go outside to play whatever sport they feel like and his fitness regime has also a separate fan following in the glamour industry of Bollywood youngsters like Varun Dhawan, Tiger Shroff, etc. have many time made statements like in terms of fitness their inspiration is Virat Kohli.
