Ever since Virat Kohli led India U19 team to lift the World Cup in 2008, the national selectors had started having a watch at his performances. He impressed many with his hunger to succeed and his exceptional performances continued in domestic cricket and for India A as well. Dilip Vengsarkar was the chairman of the selection committee then and was having a keen eye on Kohli.

On Wednesday, Vengsarkar revealed that the current India captain impressed him during his India A stint in the Emerging Players tournament in Australia. In the opening game against New Zealand, Virat went on to score a century while opened the innings and remained unbeaten until the end to take his team over the line and this is what impressed Vengsarkar the most.

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After looking at his knock, Dilip Evngsarkar felt that Kohli should be pushed into the national team soon, and eventually, the Delhi-born cricketer made his ODI debut on Sri Lanka tour in August 2008.

During a chat with Sportskeeda, Vengsarkar said, “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.”

Vengsarkar also revealed his thinking behind picking the players like Kohli for the Emerging players’ tournament. And Kohli was picked for the same reason as he had successfully led the U19 team in the World Cup.

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12 years down the line, the decision seems to be perfect as Virat Kohli has now be considered as one of eth best cricketers of the modern-day cricket across all formats in international cricket with 70 centuries to his name in both ODIs and Tests.