Virat Kohli was inspired after seeing Dipika Pallikal's training, reveals Shankar Basu

Not only for cricket but India captain Virat Kohli is an inspiration for millions also because of his extreme dedication for fitness. The 31-year old is arguably the fittest cricket in the world right now. At a time when cricketers across the globe are busy with their workload management, the right-handed batsman is playing non-stop cricket across formats without any trouble whatsoever.

Kohli is currently the top-ranked batsman in ODIs and T20Is. If one takes stats into account, Kohli is well ahead of his contemporaries. He is the only batsman in the world right now with an average of more than 50 across the three formats. And apart from his batting, Kohli has also left the world impressed with his fitness.

While he was not the fittest of cricketers in his early years in international cricket, he is definitely one now. Kohli has raised the bar for fitness in the game and has been inspiring his teammates to do the same too. He has also made BCCI inculcate the yo-yo Test in Team India’s conditioning camps. A failure in the yo-yo test could cost a player a place in the team.

Virat Kohli’s inspiration:

While Virat Kohli has been inspiring millions across the world with his fitness, very few know that he too was inspired by someone. Former Team India trainer Shankar Basu recently revealed that Dipika Pallikal, star squash player and Dinesh Karthik‘s wife, was Kohli’s inspiration to train harder.

“The first two-three years, we used to train only in the summer during IPL. Actually, he got inspired after seeing Dipika Pallikal (squash player) train. He was astonished to learn about the demands of an individual sport. Then he said ‘why can’t I do the same’,” Basu told reporters during a recent promotional event as quoted by TimesNow.

Kohli is definitely one of the fittest cricketers around at the moment but Basu said there is still room for more. Basu also said that Kohli never stops himself from pushing harder and enhance his performance.

“I think he can do a little more exploring,” he said. “As Virat Kohli knows, the sky is the limit in fitness. I always used to tell him that ‘Usain Bolt and Novak Djokovic should be your idols and you have miles to go’. He is constantly looking for that extra edge; something extra to enhance his performance,” added Basu.

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