A PUCCA DELHI BOY, HE STRUGGLED HARD TO RISE AS ONE OF THE GREATEST INDIAN SPORTSMEN
By Harihar Swarup
The chaos over the successor in the immediate aftermath of Virat Kohli's resignation from the Test captaincy tells the story. Following the announcement of Kohli's stepping down, speculation has been rife over Kohli's successor in the leadership role. Many have touted Rohit Sharma – who has already been named India's limited-overs captain – as India's next Test skipper. Former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar had named young wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant as his choice for the role, and India's World Cup-winning all-rounder Yuvraj Singh voiced his agreement.
To appreciate Kohli's achievement, look at where India was before him. It was far cry from the lacklustre days of the Test captaincy of M S Dhoni, whose success in white-ball created a halo but couldn't hide his weakness as a captain in the long run and tougher format of Tests. India was languishing at No 7 in the tests, had a strange reluctance even to talk about overseas goals let alone pursuing them, and displaying an alarming tendency to meander along in key moments which would unsurprisingly lead to a meek surrender.
The bounce-backability and refusal to give up fight, that has been the hall-mark of Kohli's era, was conspicuous by its absence before him. Under Kohli, the team shed their defensiveness about overseas record and actively pursuing the goal to become Number One. Kohli would say that a “special madness is needed”, a trait he successfully inculcated in his team, inspired by his vision, fast bowlers started to break down self-limiting boundaries.
Barring Jasprit Bumrah, the previous regime had all other pacers at their disposal but weren't able to inspire them to heights they were under Kohli. Mohammed Shami found venom, Ishant Sharma was rejuvenated to kick-start a profitable second innings. Umesh Yadav tweaked his game to constantly hover around, and though Bhuvaneshwar Kumar couldn't push his body to desired standards of the management, younger men like Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur came along, Rohit Sharma discovered his true mettle as an opener, so did K L Rahul, and Ravindra Jadeja and Rishabh Pant started to spread wings.
Kohli's way was to set the standards, draw the line on the sand, and then watch others scramble over or fall besides it. It was hard and old school but unarguably efficient in achieving results. In the process, he would at times come across as non-emphatic, but he wasn't too flustered by the criticism. A sense of ruthlessness on and off the field was Kohli's way, and no one can argue with its great success.
Kohli was born on November 5, 1988 in Delhi into a Punjabi Hindu family. His father, Prem Kohli, worked as a criminal lawyer and his mother, Saroj Kohli, is a house wife. He has an older brother, Vikash, and an older sister Bhavana.
Kohli was raised in Uttam Nagar and started his schooling at Vishal Bharti Public School. In 1998, the West Delhi Cricket Academy was created and a nine-year-old Kohli was part of its first intake. Kohli was trained at the Academy under Rajkumar Sharma and also played matches at the Sumeet Dogra Academy. In ninth, he shifted to Saviour Convent in Pashim Vihar to help his cricket practice. Kohli family lived in Meera Bagh until 2015 when they moved to Gurugram.
Kohli's father died on December 18, 2006 due to a stroke after being bed-ridden for a week. Virat played for Delhi Under-15 team in October 2002 in Polly Umrigar Trophy.
Kohli made his first debut for Dehli against Tamil Nadu. In November 2006, at the age 18, he scored 10 runs in his debut innings. He came into spotlight in December when he decided to play for his team against Karnataka on the day after his father's death and went on to score 90. He went directly to the funeral after he got out of the match. (IPA Service)
