Virat Kohli maintains highest fitness standards as 23 of his teammates checked-in at NCA for rehab last season

Virat Kohli didn’t check in at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore last season.

Widely regarded as one of the finest athletes in the sport, veteran India batter Virat Kohli has once again become the talk of the town for his top-notch fitness standards.

The news agency PTI cited a BCCI report to claim that Kohli was the fitness Indian cricketer in the 2021-22 season.

As per the BCCI report, prepared by the board CEO Hemang Amin, at least 23 centrally-contracted Indian cricketers, except for Virat, required a visit to NCA for rehabilitation in the last season for some or other injury.

"A total of 96 complex injuries to 70 players were treated by the NCA medical team during this period," according to the report.

Out of 70 players, 23 were from senior India team, 25 from India A/Targeted, one from India U-19, seven from the senior Women team and 14 from states.

The 23 centrally contracted players included Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Shikhar Dhawan, Hardik Pandya, Umesh Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Rishabh Pant, Ishant Sharma, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Mayank Agarwal, Yuzvendra Chahal, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ajinkya Rahane, R Ashwin, Akshar Patel and Wriddhiman Saha.

In the past one year, Virat Kohli didn’t check in at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore for injury or fitness-related issues.

"To be fair, a lot of these injuries were on-field. Some were unlucky with fractures (Surya). Some had multiple issues at different times.

"But you have to give it to Kohli's fitness that he has managed himself so well that he never had any hamstring or muscle related injuries, primarily because of the kind of fitness work he does throughout the year," a BCCI source said.

Kohli's fitness is really praiseworthy, given that several Indian players 10 years younger to him required rehab and extended injury lay-offs in the 2021-22 season.

The list featured youngsters like Shubman Gill, Prithvi Shaw, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Venkatesh Iyer, KS Bharat, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, Karthik Tyagi, Navdeep Saini and Rahul Chahar.

Virat Kohli may have developed back-related (herniated disc) problem in 2018, but he has managed it well and is still ranked among the fittest cricketer in the world.

(With PTI inputs)