Kohli has raised the bar: Kumble

NEW DELHI: “I was captaining India and came to Delhi to play a Ranji game. In the dressing room, pacer Pradeep Sangwan said, ‘Viru bhai (Virender Sehwag) ek player aaya hai chota sa. Ek din aap se bhi bada player banega.’ (A diminutive player has come. One day he will be a bigger player than you). I laughed thinking he was pulling my leg, he was talking about Virat Kohli.”

“When he came out to bat alongside me, he played a straight drive that whizzed past like a bullet and that was the moment I thought that he was a big player,” Sehwag said about Kohli at the launch of ‘Driven: The Virat Kohli Story’.

Written by eminent cricket journalist Vijay Lokapally, the book takes readers through Kohli’s career. The idea about the book took shape in Kohli’s west Delhi house on a December morning last year.

Lokapally was visiting with the cricketer’s coach Rajkumar Sharma, and Kohli’s mother served sumptuous parathas. What caught the attention was the resolve with which Kohli stayed away from the parathas, something he loved since his early years.

In Kohli’s actions, the author could see the transformation of a chubby fellow to India’s fittest cricketer. “Seeing Kohli eat a healthy mixture of proteins was a shock. We insisted he have a bite and he obliged,” said Lokapally.

On Tuesday, legends like Anil Kumble, Ravi Shastri, Kapil Dev and the man himself went down memory lane in an attempt to understand the India Test captain.

Kumble and Shastri praised his simplicity as a cricketer. “You got to give him all the credit for what he is. Whatever he does in future from here on, he is already a great cricketer for India. The best thing about him is his work ethic and how simply he continues to work hard,” said Shastri.

Kumble said what struck him was Kohli’s sense of responsibility. “I first saw him during the U-19 days. Then he joined the RCB (Royal Challengers Bangalore) and since then we share a good relationship. He is one guy who raised the bar.”

When he came out to bat alongside me, he played a straight drive that whizzed past like a bullet and that was the moment I thought that he was a big player VIRENDER SEHWAG, on Virat Kohli