While the world acknowledges Virat Kohli for completely changing India's fitness culture, the skipper himself believes it is the team's former strength and conditioning coach Shanker Basu who was the "biggest factor".
Especially on his own transition from a chubby Delhi boy to a supremely fit athlete, Kohli puts it is all down to training like a "maniac" under Basu's guidance.
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The Indian captain raved about Basu during an Instagram live session with Indian footballer and his friend, Sunil Chhetri.
"It (fitness and training) is everything for me, I would not take credit for it, for me the biggest factor for my career going in another template has to be Shanker Basu," said Kohli, about the man whose fruitful stint with the Indian team ended with the last year's World Cup in UK. Basu, however, will continue to work closely with Kohli, having re-joined IPL franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).
"He (Basu) was a trainer at RCB, he introduced me to lifting. I was a bit hesitant, I had some back issues, it was a totally new concept for me. But within three weeks I was amazed at the results that followed."
"After that, he worked with me on my diet, I started paying attention to what was happening with my body, that's when I realised that because of my genes, I have to work twice or thrice on my body, I am doing the basic thing which my career requires me to do," added Kohli.
On training and turning vegan in order to take himself to another level with regards to fitness, Kohli said: "till the time I am playing the sport, I will be a maniac, if you are playing for the country, you have to work hard, if you cannot do that, then you should step away."
During the session, Kohli took the example of a popular personality from Chhetri's field, Portuguese football star Cristiano Ronaldo, hailing him as a "beast", whose mentally is inspiring.
"There are lots of people who look extremely good on-field but to turn up for big matches that regularly, Cristiano stands out," Kohli said.
"Like he went to Juventus and Champions League game, they lost 2-0 and then prior to return leg, he asked all his friends and family to come and watch the game saying 'it is going to be a special night' and then to play like that, score a hat-trick and take them through, unbelievable."
"That is beast mentality. I can literally count on fingers the number of people who can have that conviction to say something and then do it like that. That for me is extremely inspiring," he added.
(Inputs from PTI)
