I'm The King Of This Place, I Will Win This Game For My Team - Former Teammates Recall Virat Kohli's Attitude In Early Days

Indian batter Virat Kohli has always led from the front and taken on challenges in his stride quite effectively. The fiercely competitive nature in him never allowed for a moment’s relief, and he always chased for glory.

This attitude of his has stuck with him since his early days, as narrated by his former Delhi teammates, Pradeep Sangwan and Tanmay Srivastava. They opened up on how Kohli was in the limelight while on the pitch and off it, he was just another guy who wanted to have fun.

“We all knew Virat will play for India one day because of his habit of scoring big hundreds. It’s (been) a habit since the beginning. Bahot maarta tha (He used to score plenty of runs) and he ensured he scored against all good teams.”

“His mindset was such that if he scores big against big teams then his chances of getting picked for the Indian team will get closer. Log poochenge, jaanenge about him. (People will be curious about him),” Sangwan recalled in a chat with The Indian Express.

Kohli established himself as the master of run-chases, wanting to get his team over the line on every single occasion. He wanted to put himself out there as the biggest hurdle for the opposition, and this feature of his remains intact to this day.

“When he is inside the ground, he never gives up. He feels as if bas mein hi hoon, maine akele ne karna hai bas. (It’s just me. I have to get the job done.) I’m the king of this place and I will win this game for my team.”

“When inside the dressing room, he will look out for guys with whom he can crack jokes. He will pass comments. He keeps the environment light which is very important because sometimes the situation is tense inside the dressing room,” Sangwan further added.

“People used to say, ‘look, he has attitude issues'” – Tanmay Srivastava on Virat Kohli

Kohli didn’t hold himself back from speaking his mind, something that is held against him quite often. However, he always backed his words up and performed on the field. Anytime he failed, the detractors would begin questioning him, as revealed by Srivastava.

“He was alag (different) because of his attitude since the beginning. The way he used to fight and take on anyone on the ground was there from the beginning. He was aggressive. People used to say, ‘look, he has attitude issues’.”

“But when he began to perform, his attitude became aggression in their eyes! Many former players used to say, ‘Bada khalifa ban gaya hai (he has become a big player)’.

“They would taunt saying ‘iska chashma (sunglasses) & walk (swag) toh dekho. The moment he didn’t score everyone started pointing fingers at him,” Srivastava mentioned.

Kohli went on to lead India in all three formats until recently when he gave up the role to manage his workload.

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