Virat: An epitome of fitness for young players

When it comes to being fit, the Indian Captain has been at the forefront of the change in fitness standards of the Indian cricket team.

Apart from cover drives, wristy flicks, ability to score freely in all formats and mastery in chasing down totals, fitness is something about Virat Kohli, that the whole world knows. Even Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal is the latest to heap about Kohli’s fitness, as on Tuesday he explained how he felt ashamed after seeing Kohli’s training before an international game.

Tamim said that, as both him and Kohli were of the same age, the incident happened two, three years back, when Kohli’s training compelled him to think about his own fitness.

Tamim told, Sanjay Manjrekar in a videocast hosted by ESPNCricinfo, “I have no shame in admitting this when I saw Virat Kohli running around two-three years ago, I was ashamed of myself, I thought this is a guy who is probably my age, but he is training so much and I have not doing even half to it.”

” I must say this, it is not because I am talking to an Indian commentator, India is our neighbor so whatever things they do, it affects Bangladesh as well. We follow what is happening in India when India changed its approach towards fitness, it impacted Bangladesh the most.” he added.

Bangladesh, wicket-keeper batsman Mushfiqur Rahim is someone who takes fitness standards very seriously, Tamim said.

He further added, “We have a great example in our team as well, Mushfiqur Rahim manages himself well regarding fitness.”

In a Facebook live session, where Tamim had also hosted Kohli, in which the Indian Captain explained how approaches a particular chase.

Virat stated that he didn’t take fitness that seriously at the start of his career but it, later on became an integral part of his life, as when he first grabbed the limelight in 2008 after leading India to the U19 World Cup title he was a lot different from the current version.

Many have picked the current Indian skipper to break the records set by Tendulkar, as the comparison between Kohli and Sachin had also been a burning topic.

While Kohli currently has 70 centuries across all formats, Tendulkar managed to call time his career, after registering 100 international centuries.

In the ICC ODI rankings, currently Kohli is ranked at the top spot, whereas in test rankings he secured the second place.