Virat Kohli Shares The Incident Which Changed Him As An Individual

The skipper of the Indian cricket team, Virat Kohli, is notching up records every time he comes out to bat. He recently became the fastest to score 10,000 ODI runs.

The 30-year-old cricketer is all set to lead his team in the upcoming four-match Test series against Australia. The first match of the series will begin on Thursday at the renowned Adelaide Oval.

However the start of Kohli’s glorious cricketing journey was not a fairytale one. He lost his father, Prem Kohli, back on December 19, 2006. Kohli’s mother Saroj Kohli recently went down the memory lane and narrated the entire incident.

Kohli had just turned 18 and after a few weeks of his birthday, Kohli witnessed his father bedridden as a result of a stroke.

On the fateful day of December 19, at around 3’o’clock in the morning, Prem Kohli passed away. It was at the middle of the night and hence the family couldn’t consult a doctor.

Kohli helplessly watched the entire incident pan out. However he didn’t turn back from his duty. He called his mentor with tear in his eyes and expressed his desire to play the next day.

Kohli had scored 40 on the morning of December 19. The next day he added another 50 before being given wrongfully out at the score of 90.

After leading Delhi to a stupendous victory, Virat Kohli headed straight for his father’s funeral. Kohli’s mother revealed that the incident made his son a sensible person instead of bogging him down.

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Kohli also acknowledged that the incident made him the person he is today

In an interview to The Cricket Monthly, Saroj Kohli revealed the incident stating:

Virat changed a bit after that day. Overnight he became a much more matured person. He took every match seriously. He hated being on the bench. It’s as if his life hinged totally on cricket after that day. Now, he looked like he was chasing his father’s dream which was his own too.

Kohli did not mince any words while revealing that the incident contributed a lot to his growth. Kohli is one of the disciplined cricketers in the Indian dressing room.

He takes care of his looks and always prefers a balanced diet in order to maintain his incredible level of fitness. Kohli changed himself totally from a chubby-faced boy to a bearded beast.

“It made me the person I am today. The [physical] training part, the eating part, the self-discipline part, all that was not included. All these things are part of work ethics for me. I am a freak for keeping things clean. Keeping my room stacked up nicely and stuff like that is part of my daily routine now.

So I had to figure out what can take me to that next level. What can give me more stability in my mind so that I do not focus on stuff like opinions, advice, suggestions. My eating habits, my training habits, they became very bad. I told myself: ‘You cannot look like that if you are an international cricketer. You need to do something’,” Kohli mentioned.