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Yuvraj Singh’s pep talk transformed Virat Kohli into a Beast

Chaithanya Sagar
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Virat Kohli was just an ordinary cricketer in the early stages of his career. He shot into prominence when he helped India clinch the Under 19 World Cup.

He earned the tag of an international cricketer. But, never did he got any chance to spice it up in the main matches. Due to stiff competition in the Indian squad, he was in reserve desperately waiting for a chance to showcase his potential.

After all the wait, the selectors picked Virat Kohli for the home series against England in 2008. But, the team management decided to let him play for the final two games only.

Unfortunately, a terror attack struck the entire Mumbai which forced the BCCI to call off the tour with immediate effect. This tour cancellation also put Kohli’s debut on hold.

After that, Kohli was shown the dark side as he was dropped by the Indian selectors. This indeed was frustrating for him in his early stages as he was in a bit of turmoil.

The Indian journalist, Rajdeep Desai, in his book, Democracy XI portrayed why Virat was Kohli dropped from the squad which hit the nadir of his initial stages of his career.

“We were being fed stories of how Virat was binge-drinking in the 2009 IPL in South Africa and was more interested in his hairstyles and tattoos than his cricket,” Rajdeep Desai claimed in that book.

Yuvraj Singh earlier gave a nice pep talk to Virat Kohli when the latter delved into some worst stages early on. Yuvraj suggested Kohli to take Sachin as inspiration in order to become a top-class player.

“I think I once told Virat quite seriously that if you want to be a top-class player, don’t copy me, make Sachin your inspiration. Be disciplined like him, not carefree like me,” Yuvraj told according to Democracy XI.

Analysing Virat Kohli’s career now, things have been changed with the increase in years. This goes to show the transition and transformation of Virat Kohli from rock bottom to the highest level.

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