Published 15:35 IST, December 10th 2019
Virat Kohli's trainer reveals the squash player who inspired him to be the fittest
Virat Kohli's trainer Shankar Basu recently revealed the star squash player's name, who was the Indian captain's inspiration to train harder. Read to know more.
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Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli is an inspiration for millions across the globe not only for his cricket but also because of his fitness. Kohli is arguably one of the fittest cricketers in the world right now. At a time when cricketers all around the world are busy with their workload management, the right-handed batsman has been on the road non-stop without any trouble whatsoever.
The 31-year-old is currently the top-ranked batsman in ODIs and T20Is and is well ahead of his contemporaries. He is the only batsman in the world right now with an average of more than 50 across all three formats. Besides his accomplished batting, Kohli has also impressed the fans with his fitness.
Dipika Pallikal was Kohli’s inspiration to train harder: Shankar Basu
However, very few know that Kohli too was inspired by someone. Former Team India trainer Shankar Basu, who is now only involved with Royal Challengers Bangalore, the IPL franchise which Kohli captains, recently revealed that Dipika Pallikal, the star Indian squash player and cricketer Dinesh Karthik‘s wife, was Kohli’s inspiration to train harder. During a recent promotional event, Basu told reporters of a leading media house that Kohli used to train only in the IPL during the first two-three years, but he was inspired hugely after watching Dipika Pallikal train.
Basu added that the India skipper was astonished to learn about the demands of an individual sport. The former India trainer said that after watching the squash player train, Kohli asked Basu to mould his training module as if he is doing so for playing an individual sport. Kohli is definitely one of the fittest cricketers around at the moment but Basu said there was still room for more improvement as he has never stopped himself from pushing harder and enhancing his performance.
Basu concluded that Kohli can explore more and added the right-hander knows that the sky is the limit in fitness. He has often insisted that Kohli must make the likes of Usain Bolt and Novak Djokovic as his idols and that he has miles to go. The celebrity fitness trainer lauded the Indian skipper's attitude and said that he was constantly looking for that extra edge; something extra that enhanced his performance.
13:42 IST, December 10th 2019