'He Said He Will Eat Only 200 Grams One Day': Pradeep Sangwan Explains How Virat Kohli Worked On His Weight Loss Transformation

Delhi skipper Pradeep Sangwan opened up on Virat Kohli’s weight loss transformation in 2012 as the star Indian player realised to work on his fitness to play for the Indian cricket team. In his initial days of international cricket, Kohli was very fond of eating street food, especially Chole Bhature (a popular dish in Nothern India).

Kohli switched gears and underwent a rigorous routine with his fitness standards and training in order to prolong his international career for India.

Virat Koli was determined to lose his weight: Pradeep Sangwan

31-year-old Sangwan, who has played with Kohli at India U19 level and domestic cricket for the Delhi state team, revealed the favourite dishes of Kohli during his early days of playing cricket.

“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 rolls, chicken rolls were his favourite. We were in South Africa with India under 19 team, and someone told him that you get nice mutton roll at some place, but it’s not in a secure neighbourhood,” Sangwan wrote in his column for The Indian Express.

“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,” he added. 

Virat Kohli used to eat by weighing his portions sometimes: Pradeep Sangwan

Sangwan also mentioned that Kohli would prepare his diet in such a way that he would count his food by weighing his portions sometimes and went on to reduce 12 kgs in the span of three months.

“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. He wanted to be a good fielder, he was a safe fielder then too but in terms of reflexes, he felt he was not upto the mark. He wanted to be the best fielder. He liked to bat for hours in the nets and then he would go do some more knocking,” Sangwan said. 

Kohli recently played his 100th Test match against Sri Lanka at the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) stadium in Mohali. Kohli has scored 23614 international runs from 509 innings across all three formats and has also achieved 70 international hundreds (27 in Tests and 43 in ODIs).

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