CHENNAI: I have known Virat Kohli from 2006. We went to England, Pakistan, New Zealand, Thailand, Malaysia and Sri Lanka during my stint as the head coach of the U-19 India team. I recently met him in Dubai during the 2025 Champions Trophy. As I am the UAE coach, he requested me to make a few left-arm and leg spinners available. We provided him with three-four bowlers and he faced them in the nets. Next day he scored a century (against Pakistan).
Mostly we had personal conversations. He was enjoying his game so I was really shocked to learn about his retirement from Test cricket on Monday. But we must respect his decision, he must have some other things in his mind. But, according to me, given his fitness and the way he is playing now, if you look at his form in the IPL, he could have continued.
We have been in constant touch but so far I have not spoken to him on his decision. He must be flooded with calls and messages and I am also busy in the Netherlands as UAE is playing matches here. We have a good rapport and to be honest, he is very open to me. It showed when he approached me after not having a good tour of England in 2014. I was the head coach of the specialised batting academy of the National Cricket Academy then.
He said 'I just wanted to come and do some batting'. We worked on a couple of things. We worked on his mental aspect, we worked on a few adjustments. Since he is a great player, he knew what needed to be done. He used to bat for hours and hours and I used to do a lot of throwdowns. Mera haath nikal jaata tha (my hands used to be tired), I used to do throwdowns for more than an hour. The main thing is that he had that urge of being a perfectionist. He always wanted to be the best. There is no second option for him.
It was just a mental thing and a bit technical as well. Mental in the sense that when you get out to a particular bowler... (James) Anderson got him out quite a lot then. Initially, he got him out with an inswinger and later on he got out because of the outswinger. So, he was always playing for inswing to be honest but there were balls which used to go away. He used to play those balls considering them as an inswinger. So I told him to try to negotiate with the outswingers. I told him to leave the balls and at the same time, you must know where your off stump is. So we used to draw lines and all and work on it. And then he went to Australia and scored four hundreds. He was at the NCA for 15 days and worked very hard and it paid dividends Down Under.
What makes him special is his hunger to excel. It's been there since his U-19 days. If he used to get out in the 70s and 80s, he used to say he had missed a hundred. When he got out on 120 or 130, he used to say he had missed the double hundred. He wanted to excel all the time. That time I saw he was so hungry for success and he always wanted to be at the top. When a player has that hunger in his U19 days or growing up years, he is bound to be successful. That's why he became one of the greatest players.
He was a little bit chubby when he started off and then he became a fitness fanatic. He had that hunger of changing the mindset of the players. He focussed on fitness and made sure players know that they have to be fit to be in the teams. He used to lead by example.
He understood the importance of fitness once he started playing international cricket. He understood that if he wanted to survive here, he needed to fit. In international cricket, you cannot get easy boundaries, so you have to rotate strike, run between the wickets. So the fitter you are, the better it is. He worked hard on that aspect.
He must have seen Australian and other players doing a lot of training, strengthening and working on endurance. That is why he brought the yo-yo test, he changed the whole dynamics of Indian cricket and fitness. If players are fit, that team looks a different outfit on the field altogether. That changed our fielding standards, fast bowlers came into the picture. And he knew that they would not get spin friendly wickets abroad. He wanted to win away from home so he insisted on having good fast bowlers who could claim 20 wickets in each match on foreign soil.
As he is now retired from T20Is and Tests, he must be focussing on ODIs. I think that is one thing he wants to win (2027 ODI World Cup) and go on a high. In the 2024 T20 World Cup, he was Player of the Final and in the Champions Trophy, he had a good run. I hope he finishes on a high after the 2027 ODI World Cup.
