We have all been pranked in our lives but some pranks can make you cry. You won't believe that someone as great as Virat Kohli was also tricked by his colleagues during his formative years, forcing him to break down into tears, his former Delhi teammate and friend Pradeep Sangwan has revealed. Virat Kohli is currently experiencing a prolonged slump in form and has now gone more than 100 games without a hundred in all formats of the game. His last century in any form of cricket came back in a Test match against Bangladesh in November 2019.
However, Virat Kohli hasn't endured such a lean patch for the first time in his career. According to Pradeep Sangwan, the Delhi-born batter had not scored in his last 2-3 innings during his U-17 days and that's when his teammates and then-coach decided to play a prank on him.
“We were playing in a U-17 match in Punjab. He (Kohli) 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 funnily suggested, ‘let's tell him he will not play in the next match. We all joined in on the prank,” Pradeep Sangwan made the revelation in an interview with News24.
“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),” he added.
“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!” Pradeep Sangwan said.
Coming back to Virat Kohli's current state of affairs, the 33-year-old's woeful run extended to the just-concluded Indian Premier League (IPL) where he was dismissed for three golden ducks for the first time in his career.
Seeing his struggles, several former cricketers came up with their versions of how Virat Kohli could get to scoring runs again. While Australia great Brett Lee and former India coach Ravi Shastri advised him to take a break from the sport, others asked him to tighten his technique.
One man, however, made no such suggestions and has even backed him to regain his touch soon. He's none other than Rohit Sharma's childhood coach Dinesh Lad.
“Virat will make a comeback. Bad patches happen to everyone, some of the greatest cricketers have gone through it. Whether it be Viv Richards, Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, they all went through bad patches. But then they came back from it. I am sure that Virat will make a great comeback,” Dinesh Lad said in a conversation with India TV.
“I think he should take care of his mental health more, that may have been affected by his form. He will always bat well, I have nothing to say about his batting. He doesn't look mentally strong which may be the reason why his performances have gone down. Not scoring a century for three years is very bad. Especially for a player like Virat. Sachin had said that his record can be broken by only two batters and they are Virat and Rohit. Virat had come close and I would like him to be breaking those records over the next few years,” he said.
In the IPL, Virat Kohli scored a mere 341 runs in 16 games for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) with the highest score of 73. Though his numbers were better than the current Team India captain Rohit Sharma who failed to touch the 300-run mark, Kohli too disappointed his fans in the competition.
While his yields with the bat were low, even his strike rate of 115.98 and average of 22.73 were unimpressive.
But just like Lad, every Indian cricket fan has been waiting for Virat Kohli's next century with bated breath.
And Kohli who is currently enjoying a much-needed break from international cricket after being rested from the home T20I series against South Africa will get his chance soon in England.
Next month, the Indian cricket team is set to play a Test match on English soil followed by three T20Is and three ODIs.
Virat Kohli, who is known for taking up challenges, may just deliver on the toughest of stages as a win for India in the rescheduled Test would give them their first series triumph in England since 2007.
Follow Us
Subscribe