India skipper Virat Kohli is hard to beat in skills and even tougher to be taken down mentally. Former India chairman of selectors, Dilip Vengsarkar had already spotted the grit of Kohli.

Vengsarkar was impressed with Virat during the Emerging Players Tournament in Australia in 2008 which resulted in the then youngster's inclusion in the Indian cricket team.

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The then head of the selection committee said he decided to pick Kohli as per their strategy of giving chance to players who have better chances of playing for the senior team soon.

"When there was an emerging players' tournament in Australia, I was the chairman of the selection committee. We had decided at that point in time that we must pick players who were fringe players or who would play for India very soon, especially the U-23 boys. So we had picked Virat Kohli in the team," Vengsarkar said during an interaction with Sportskeeda.

"In the first match against New Zealand, they had scored 240-250 and Virat Kohli was asked to open the innings and he scored 123*. What I appreciated was that even after his hundred, he went on to win the game for his team and he remained not out.

"That really impressed me and there I thought that here is a boy that we must push into the Indian team because he was mentally mature and of course we picked him and the rest is history."

Kohli got included in the Indian side at the age of 19 for an ODI series against Sri Lanka. He had managed 204 runs in 5 matches at an average of 51 in the emerging players' tournament.