The journey of Virat Kohli from a young passionate boy to lead Indian team to new heights is not what most the people may think. Kohli has brought a new transition in the Indian cricket since his appointment as the skipper. But this all was not that easy for him despite being a U-19 world champion captain.

He made his International debut in Sri Lanka just after six months of touching silverware with his young teammates in Malaysia. Despite a reasonable performance, he got dropped because of the re-arrival of Sachin and Sehwag in the squad. Though, selectors picked him for a home seven-match ODI series against England, where team management told him earlier that he will be in the playing XI for the last two matches. However, it couldn’t happen as England return after playing just five matches due to a terrorist attack in Mumbai.

Afterwards, he got dropped from the team and it broke him from inside. Now, journalist Rajdeep Sardesai described in his book ‘Democracy XI’ that he became a victim of image trap. “We were being fed stories of how Virat was binge-drinking in the 2009 IPL in South Africa and was more interested in his hairstyles and tattoos than his cricket,” claimed the selector as quoted by Sardesai. These incidents charged up Kohli and he decided to work hard for a comeback in the team.

Yuvraj Singh then went to Virat and gave him some valuable advice for his new career. Yuvi, who himself accused of living a Bollywood star like life, said him to follow Sachin Tendulkar rather than following him “I think I once told Virat quite seriously that if you want to be a top-class player, don’t copy me, make Sachin your inspiration. Be disciplined like him, not carefree like me,” Sardesai wrote Yuvraj’s words.

Now, after almost a decade Indian skipper is taking world cricket in a storm. He is already counting in legends cricketers for his phenomenal One-Day career. As of now, he has gone past Ricky Ponting on the list of most ODI tons and is only behind great Sachin Tendulkar.