NEW DELHI: From playing alongside batting stalwarts Virender Sehwag and his idol Sachin Tendulkar to captaining the Indian cricket team, Virat Kohli has come a long way. And it is his hunger for wins and his insatiable appetite to score runs against any bowling attack in the world that has put Kohli in the league of ‘legends’.
Kohli was just 22 when India, under the leadership of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, lifted the coveted ICC ODI World Cup trophy after 28 years at the jam-packed Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai in 2011. A chubby-cheeked young Kohli, also known as ‘Cheeku’ among his fans and friends, learnt the art of batting, sharpened his skills and learnt how to handle pressure under the tutelage of stalwarts like Sehwag, Tendulkar, Yuvraj, Dhoni, Harbhajan and Zaheer.
Paddy Upton, who was Team India’s strength and mental conditioning coach at the time of that historic win in 2011, talked about Kohli’s transformation from a slightly overweight cricketer to arguably the fittest in world cricket in a chat with TimesofIndia.com.
“I’m guessing one of the turning points came when Vir