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Mumbai: Amid the torrent of runs Virat Kohli scored in all conditions, won India matches from tough situations and achieved success as Test captain, the biggest impact he has left even beyond Indian cricket is the fitness culture he initiated.
Virat Kohli during an India T20 World Cup squad training session at Adelaide Oval in Adelaide in 2022. (Getty Images)
It one area where India players used to lag behind when up against South Africa, England, Australia or New Zealand (SENA). After he decided to take the fitness plunge early in his career, with focus on diet and workouts, Kohli became a role model. He inspired the dressing room and that gave India the edge on the field. The team got fitter, faster and agile, and began competing better with players from these SENA countries.
India’s former strength and conditioning coach Shankar Basu was the driving force behind this change. Kohli has always showered praise on him for the role this former sprinter has played in his career.
Though Kohli decided to get serious about fitness after the 2012 Australia tour, Basu introducing him to scientific training after joining as the India team’s trainer in 2015 led to a transformation.
As Kohli walked into Test retirement, Basu reflected on his best work.
Excerpts:
On Kohli’s transformation
“He is the first cricketer who decided to train like an Olympic athlete. He didn’t want to train with oft-repeated methods, he wanted to do something different. Our relationship goes back to 2009. He is a very good student. He will have a lot of questions initially, and once he was convinced he will go in that direction.
The sign of a good leader is that first he will turn into a role model, which Virat did with aplomb. From there, one by one, the entire team started embracing that culture. The Indian team was an embodiment of fitness over a period. I remember a time when one of the foreign coaches came and asked one of our team members what our team was doing? Virat and the whole bunch are moving like athletes and their agility is unbelievable.
But I would say all the credit goes to Virat. For a leader to be a role model, to be consistently disciplined, is more than hard work. Consistently train hard, eat right, do every recovery modality, strength training, cardiovascular work, skill session, he did it as if he was on a mission. In his period (captaincy), we instilled fear in the other teams, SENA and all. The belief was unbelievable, the way he carried himself on and off the field. It rubbed off on everybody. The rest is history.
What was the trigger for Kohli?
That was to be the best in the business. He looked at a lot of athletes and wanted to emulate them. I always make a comparison of Virat Kohli, Cristiano Ronaldo, LeBron James, Usain Bolt. He falls in the same league with regards to passion, excellence. Don’t think he will be happy with a world record; if he has established one, he will try and break that. He is a once in a 100 years guy.
What was the process?
I brought in a different template. For him to understand himself and to show it to the entire team and for the team to believe in it, without him nothing could have happened. Actually, you can say before Virat and after him. I was a charioteer there.
When did it start?
I joined the team in 2015. When you are with the team for 12 months it becomes easier. Everyone who joins the gym starts looking at the mirror after 3-4 days, but nothing happens. It takes time. It was built brick by brick and the architect and author of this book was Virat.
How did it translate into performance?
Virat himself has mentioned in interviews, it gave him a new template and vigour, mental aggression to play the sport because he knew he could trust his body. Trusting his body is a term he brought in and a lot of others started believing in it.
How hard did he work on it?
Hard work and discipline, I agree, are important but method and consistency are the two new two words.
You have to come up with a template that is scientific. You can’t say everyone is doing, so you also do it. If someone is working for two hours, you work three hours, that is crap. You have to be drawn by science and logic, not blind work. You have to follow the template for a period of time even if the results go the other way.
Example of Virat’s quality?
It is his precision. Once he understands the blue print, Virat will stick to it all the time. If he has to drink juice at 11 O’clock, you can rest assured it will be 11. If people have to emulate him, it has to be consistency, precision, understanding a template, understanding science and logic.
How did the team buy into it?
When you see your own leader doing it daily, it becomes infectious. He transformed himself and everybody witnessed it.
Difference it made to his batting
The proof of the pudding is in its eating. It was there for everyone to see – from 2016 to 2019 he made seven double hundreds, what more can you ask? If you include fielding and aggression, no one can hold a candle to him. Not a single day will you see him without aggression. I myself sometimes marvelled, where is this guy coming from. I would say he was a pathbreaker. Don’t you think he changed how the game was played? Don’t you think it was a new era with him? What more can you ask?
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