I was very lucky to have an athlete like Virat Kohli: Shanker Basu

Virat Kohli had a great run in the 9th edition of Indian Premier League (IPL), leading the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) side into the finals of the tournament. The RCB fitness coach Shanker Basu said that he is very lucky to have an association with the RCB skipper.

“A lot of athletes will say that they are very lucky to find a coach, but I will instead say that Virat Kohli is an exceptional person, so I was very lucky to have an athlete like him. My association with him dates back to eight years through IPL,” Basu told ‘bcci.tv’.

“Virat has decided to become the best athlete in the world and sky is the limit. There a lot of role models ahead of him in terms of sheer athletic abilities and he will never shy away from competition. He will grab it with both hands,” he added.

Virat Kohli was the highest run scorer in the IPL and also won the award for the most sixes (38) in the tournament, which was mainly because of his high fitness levels. Basu gave an insight of how the RCB skipper deals with his fitness. “Virat will never challenge you once he is convinced about your methods. I found an athlete who was ready to go through the grind and work hard consistently whenever the need arose. He is very good with his nutrition plans and discipline factors.”

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“He has also made a lot of lifestyle changes. Kudos to him. I was just a tool. I only introduced him to the right kind of strength work which was already building thanks to my predecessors. When I joined the Indian team full time, I was able to spend more quality time on a daily basis. That probably was the icing on the cake as about 90 percent of the work was done by him and I just provided the finishing touch,” Basu explained.

Basu also said that they got an assessment of the mass of his muscle and at the end of the season it has increased dramatically. “In September, we got an assessment of his muscle mass. At the end of the season, we wanted to see if there was a change and what we noticed was his muscle mass had increased dramatically. In the last six months, he has put a lot of time in developing his strength, mass, and power.”

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