Virat Kohli reveals how turning vegan helped him accomplish great things in Test cricket

Kohli is widely deemed as one of fittest athletes in the world.

Virat Kohli | Getty

India skipper Virat Kohli’s physical transformation in the last few years has grabbed the attention of one and all. In fact, In fact, he has often attributed his stellar showing with the willow to his intense fitness regime.

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However, in order to attain supreme fitness levels, the 31-year-old has made serious changes to his eating habits and lifestyle. And turning vegetarian in 2016 is one such change that has done wonders for him in Test cricket.

In an exclusive chat with India Today, Kohli said after the IPL 2016 he decided to stop having meat and consume more carbohydrates instead to prepare for the rigours of the longest format and credited Team India's ex-fitness trainer Shankar Basu for his improved fitness standards.

"For the last year and a half I have been vegetarian. Before that I was consuming meat which was working well for me. In a phase it worked really well for me. I think from 2016 January to about the end of the IPL. Before we started playing Test cricket, we only had 5-6 months of T20 cricket so I was just doing lifting and I was eating a lot of red meat, you know consuming a lot of meat.

"So I became a very explosive athlete and I was able to play the power game really well but then Test matches came along. I had to put on a bit more fat, consume more carbohydrates. I think having Basu sir around was the biggest help for me. Like he would understand my body precisely the way I do and he would tell me what to eat when. How to train and how not to train. When to take rest, what to do while resting, how to recover. And I just followed everything to the T.

"I would just listen to him and then I started understanding it myself. So he would tell me you know what you need to do and I would comeback fresh when I took a break because I understood it myself. I wanted to learn. It was similar to batting you know when you go out there and play, you get a hundred, it's not by chance.

"You need to understand from ball one to ninety or hundred how many balls you play or Test matches you play a lot more. What were you doing for all those deliveries, so you can repeat it that's consistency," the Indian captain said.

Virat Kohli recently led India to 2-0 Test series win over Bangladesh at home. He will now be seen in action during the limited-overs series (3 T20Is and 3 ODIs) against West Indies, starting December 6.

 
 

By Salman Anjum - 01 Dec, 2019

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