Former India captain Virat Kohli has set a benchmark in modern-day cricket when it comes to fitness. Under Kohli, the much talked-about yo-yo test was introduced, a fitness parameter needed which Indian cricketers need to pass if they are to qualify for team selection. More than Kohli’s contribution as Test captain and a batting great, how Kohli has revolutionised the standard of fitness standards in Indian cricket is what defines his legacy the most. With former coach Ravi Shastri and performance coach Shankar Basu, Team India set the bar for other teams to follow.
Kohli, who recently played his 100th Test for India, has missed only a handful of games because of fitness issues, which demonstrates the 33-year-old’s threshold of pain. This was highlighted by former India physio Ashish Kaushik, who was with the team during the 2011 World Cup and Kohli’s early years with the Indian team.
“His pain tolerance is phenomenal. Some players get affected by pain more than others – pain being a subjective marker – but Kohli has got a tremendous ability to endure pain and look for solutions. I remember he had some neck and jaw pain before the 2011 World Cup semi-final in Mohali but he would take everything extremely, extremely lightly, and somehow know that he can work through it,” Kaushik told Cricbuzz.
Kaushik went on to explain how Kohli’s obsession with fitness can be measured by the fact that he would always look up to the greatest sportsmen, outside of cricket and be on par with them “The same self-awareness and self-belief also allowed Kohli to take his fitness to a different level,” he pointed out.
“A cricketer would at best compare himself to another cricketer but he was a guy who was willing to put himself out there and be compared with the best athletes in the world. Sometimes we don’t realize how big that point is. That is not something that anybody does. Because then you’re setting yourself a bar which is bloody hard to achieve. Just the fact that you are willing to do that means that you are willing to go all the way.”