India skipper Virat Kohli’s physical transformation has grabbed many eyeballs in the last five years or so. In fact, several members of the Indian cricket team even got inspired by his fitness regime and consequently started training with discipline.
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Kohli, who is the only batsman to average above 50 across three formats, has often attributed his success with the willow to his intense fitness regime. However, in order to attain supreme fitness levels, the 31-year-old has had to make some serious changes to his eating habits and lifestyle.
Recently, Paddy Upton – former strength and mental conditioning coach of Team India – talked about Virat’s evolution from a slightly overweight cricketer to arguably the fittest cricketer in the world.
“I’m guessing one of the turning points came when Virat realised he was slightly overweight and only averagely fit, and that if he wanted to be one of the best in the world, he needed to also be one of the physically fittest in the world. This change in attitude around his fitness, was one of the turning points and taking him from a highly talented cricketer who was cruising along, to a highly talented cricketer who was genuinely delivering on his talent,” Upton told Timesofindia.com in an exclusive interview.
“I highlight that it was not so much his change in fitness that directly translated to his rise to the top, but his attitude towards his fitness, and thus to himself and his game, that was the real catalyst to go from good to great,” he added.
Kohli took over the Test captaincy from MS Dhoni in 2014 and hasn’t looked back ever since. Under his leadership, Team India became the No. 1 Test side in 2016 and has now maintained the numero uno tag for more than three years. He became the full-time captain in the limited-overs formats in January 2017.
Asked to point out the difference between Kohli and Dhoni’s captaincy style, Upton said: “Dhoni and Kohli are two very different leaders. Dhoni is the strong silent type, who is very level-headed and Kohli is the emotional type.”
“Virat is highly charged and energetic, and is someone who wears his emotions on his sleeve, which we can see by his regular emotional highs and lows on the field. The way a leader behaves has varying degrees of impacts on their team. The more sensitive and slightly vulnerable team members will be most impacted by the leader's words and actions. A word of encouragement goes a long way to lifting a player and getting the best out of him, and conversely, a display of disapproval has the potential to undermine a player’s confidence. It is possible that in this way, Kohli really pumps players up, and also has the potential to undermine their confidence at other times,” he explained.
