Virat Kohli is currently one of the biggest names in the World Cricket and over the years he has toiled hard to earn a name for himself in the game that demands a lot of discipline. The former Indian skipper has not been in the best of forms lately and it was pretty evident in the recently concluded Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022. Kohli’s U-19 World Cup teammate, Pradeep Sangwan recently shared an incident from their former years in cricket.
Pradeep Sangwan was bought by the debutants Gujarat Titans (GT) in the Mega Auction 2022. The bowler made a comeback in the IPL after a gap of 4 years. He was last seen playing in the year 2018 for Mumbai Indians (MI) and the southpaw pacer recently shared an anecdote from his teenage years that involved Kohli and their coach.
Virat Kohli has been going through a rough patch for a long time and the fans have been waiting for him to deliver. Pradeep Sangwan, who was Kohli’s teammate when they played for the Delhi U-17 team, recalled an incident where the team and one of their coaches played a prank on Kohli. The prank got so real that Virat Kohli cried in his room and even called his childhood coach.
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In an interview with News24, Pradeep Sangwan recalled, “We were playing in a U17 match in Punjab. He hadn’t been scoring big in the past 2-3 innings. We had a coach named Ajit Chaudhary who used to call him ‘Cheeku’. Virat was the main player of our team, and Ajit sir suggested, ‘let’s tell him he will not play in the next match. We all joined in on the prank.”
He further reminisced, “In the team meeting, sir didn’t announce Virat’s name. He went to his room and started crying! He phone-called sir and said I’ve scored a 200 and a 250.. he had scored big in that season, to be honest. It’s just that he didn’t get enough runs in the past 2 to 3 innings. He got so emotional he even phone-called Rajkumar sir (Virat’s childhood coach).”
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Pradeep Sangwan concluded, “Then, he came to me and asked, ‘Tell me Sangwan, what’s wrong? I scored so many runs this season. I told him, ‘Yes yes, that’s very wrong!’ He wasn’t able to sleep all night as well. He said, “No, I don’t want to sleep. What’s the point of sleeping when I’m not playing?’ Then, I told him that he was playing. It was all a prank!”
Virat Kohli is known for his discipline on and off the field and he is one of the crucial reasons behind the change in the whole fitness scenario of the Indian team. He gives fitness a lot of priority and transmitted the same to the Indian players. He is very passionate about his game which shows on the field and this incident shared by Pradeep Sangwan from the player’s former years is more proof of it.
