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.
However, Kohli wasn't always this dedicated towards fitness. During his initial years in international cricket, he was not aware of how to take proper care of his body and was developing certain bad habits. However, things changed once he himself realised that he needs to get his act right.
"2012 IPL I came back home and saw myself, was disgusted. I just wanted to change everything about myself. I also saw how the dynamics of cricket around the world were changing rapidly and how I felt we were far behind in intensity levels as other teams. They were moving far ahead of us in terms of fitness levels,” Kohli said during the show ‘Open Nets with Mayank’ on bcci.tv.
"That really bothered me and it had to start at an individual level first and that realisation came to me after that IPL season in 2012 when I was eating anything that was kept in front of me,” he added.
The Indian captain also recalled his fondness for toffees before he turned his life around and brought about the fitness revolution.
"ITC Gardenia were we used to stay, they would have a packet of eclairs toffees in the mini-bar and they would refill it every time. I would finish a pack in 4-5 days time, and that was a pack of 40 toffees. That was my diet at that time, I was eating like a mad person because that phase happened where I got all the success and everything was going well and I went into the IPL thinking that I'm going to dominate,” Virat remarked.
"But that didn't turn out well and things didn't process that way. Things happened, I did not appreciate and respect it then... I was thrown back down then I went back home, realised that I need to change everything from the way I'm thinking and preparing. Changed it from next day onwards when I came back home. From then on my whole outlook towards how I want to prepare completely changed," he concluded.
