IND vs SL 2022 | Virat Kohli’s Under-19 teammates share anecdotes about their captain ahead of his 100th Test

Former Indian captain Virat Kohli will play his 100th Test match when he takes the field against Sri Lanka in the first of the two-match series against Sri Lanka, starting from March 4 at IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali. 

Left-arm spinner Iqbal Abdulla, who has played alongside Kohli at Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) as well in the Indian Premier League (IPL), said that once Kohli forgot to change his fielding position, and they still have a laugh about it on their Whatsapp group named ‘Under 19 Champions’.

Tanmay Srivastava, the hero of the 2008 Under-19 World Cup final, talked about people's perception of Kohli back then. 

“People used to say, ‘look, he has attitude issues’. But when he began to perform, his attitude became aggression in their eyes! Many former players used to say, ‘bada khalifa ban gaya hai (he has become a big player)’. It was a comment on his attitude, as they saw it. But with consistent performances, everything changed. Now the same people say he is a confident guy,” Srivastava explained.

“He used to eat a lot. Mutton-rice, everything. He would even walk for kilometres to go to various food joints; the only thing that mattered was taste.

“In 2010, when he came to play for the Delhi Ranji team, everything was different. He was eating boiled food! He wouldn’t drink more than 200 ml of liquid at a time. Rice-mutton curry had been replaced with diet food. I was surprised at how much he had changed himself,” Sangwan remembered.

“I used to meet him during the IPL and he never missed his fitness session. Most of the time, I saw him working out in the gym. His focus was way ahead of all of us. Often, cricketers do get lazy and have a ‘cheat day’ but Virat would never do that,” Shreevats said.