Mumbai: India’s star batsman Virat Kohli is known for his passion for fitness and being the revolution in Indian cricket for players to embrace the new culture in the dressing room.
While Kohli is the face of that trend-setting move, Basu Shanker, the strength and conditioning coach of Royal Challengers Bangalore, has been a silent catalyst.
While speaking on RCB Podcast Season 2, Basu gave some insights into the fitness world of Kohli and how it has impacted other cricketers.
Talking about the journey of Virat’s determination in the early days, Basu said “I have been seeing him since 2009. In 2014, he said he has a stiff back and can you do something about it? It was only for six weeks and we could not do much then. But in 2015, he said you should do a bigger role. So, I told him we will make a template for you and I will have to make drastic changes to the training that you are doing now. He asked a lot of technical questions and after several conversations back and forth, he said, ‘Ok let’s start,’ said Basu.
He further added “Virat has seen me training Deepika Pallikal (India squash player and the wife of Dinesh Karthik) and that time she was in the top 10. So, Kohli told me don’t treat me like a cricketer and work with me like an individual athlete. So, I told him you will have to train like an Olympic athlete and I used to quote Novak Djokovic to him then.”
Lauding the effort and determination of the former Indian Captain, he said “I am not tired of telling this but I have never ever seen a guy like Virat Kohli. He can do the simple, most boring things of life every day and it does not matter whether he is performing or not (on the field). But that zeal and extraordinary passion towards excellence is mind-boggling. It helped me put across my syllabus to him,”.
(With Agency Inputs)
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