“Chal yaar, wahan chalenge”: Pradeep Sangwan narrates scary incident with Virat Kohli during U-19 days

Pradeep Sangwan narrates scary incident with star batter Virat Kohli ahead of the latter’s 100th international Test match for India.

With former India skipper Virat Kohli set to play his 100th Test match for India against Sri Lanka at the PCA stadium in Mohali, the headlines continue to dominate the magnanimity of the imminent landmark event.

Mere eleven players from the population of over 1.3 billion people have gone on to play 100 Tests for the Indian Cricket team in history.

With Kohli standing at the cusp of scripting history, Pradeep Sangwan, the left-arm pacer from Delhi, reminisced the good old years he had spent with him during his junior-level Cricket playing days, and also how arguably the world’s best batter loved to play pranks on his teammates back then.

Pradeep Sangwan narrates scary incident

The former India skipper, who is credited to bring in the much needed fitness culture within the Indian Cricket team set-up, was a big foodie while he was a teenager. Sangwan, who played under Kohli when India lifted the Under-19 World Cup in 2008, revealed during an interaction with The Indian Express, that Kohli was called ‘Cheeku-mota’ for his unadulterated love for street food, and that he would go to lengths at times to satiate his hunger.

The left-arm pacer went on to narrate a rather scary incident, wherein Kohli had decided to relish the taste of some Mutton rolls, despite receiving the intimation that the place was not a secure one.

“He had been my room partner for seven-eight years in junior cricket. He used to love food, street food especially. He was a foodie, korma roll, chicken roll were his favourite. We were in South Africa with the India under 19 team, and someone told him that you get nice mutton roll at some place, but it’s not in a secure neighborhood. Our driver too told us that food is nice but recently some fight took place around there and someone chopped someone’s hand there. I got scared, but he said, ‘chal yaar, wahan chalenge’ (no biggie, dude, let’s go) and he took me there too.

“We ate and few random guys chased us, but we just drove our car back and only stopped after reaching our place,” narrated Sangwan to The Indian Express.

Pradeep Sangwan reveals Virat Kohli’s changed diet plan

Sangwan also went on to exclaim how, since making his debut for team India in 2012, Kohli took an unprecedented path towards a fitness journey that would inspire one and all in the years to come.

“After playing for India, he came to play for us in 2012 and this was the time he went to another level in terms of his diet. We used to call him cheeku-motu in the team. But in 2012 he came with a plan where he began look after his fitness. He began to follow a strict diet. He was determined to lose his weight, and wanted to shed few kilos,” narrated Sangwan.

“Inside the dressing room, his meals changed. From mutton-rice, he started bringing all the boiled stuff. Boiled sprouts, egg, green salads, dry fruits. He used to eat by weighing his portions sometimes. Like one day, he said he will eat only 200 grams, one day he said he will take only 200 ml of liquid. Pehle, mutton aur rice ka dongaa bhar ke khaata tha, and then suddenly he was picking on his food. He ate cereals in the night, sometimes fruit, brought his own chips,” he further added.