Virat Kohli Only Cricketer Never To Visit NCA For Fitness Issues In 2021-22 season, But 23 Centrally Contracted Players Got Treated At The Facility - Reports
Published - 15 Oct 2022, 12:41 AM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 12:14 AM
Everyone knows how much emphasis Virat Kohli puts on fitness and not only just his well-being but the fitness of his fellow cricketers as well. During his captaincy tenure, he made it a mission to make every cricketer who came into the Indian team, the fittest they could be.
And now there is a testament to his fitness as, per PTI, a report prepared by BCCI CEO Hemang Amin called him the fittest and healthiest cricket as he was the only one not to visit the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru for any treatment of any ailment.
However, the report out of the 70 total cricketers, who came to the NCA for treatment for various ailments, atleast 23 were centrally contracted players. Out of 70 players, 23 were from the senior India team, 25 were from India A/Targeted, one was from India U19, seven were from the Senior Women’s team, and 14 were from other states.
You Have To Give It To Virat Kohli’s Fitness That He Has Managed Himself So Well: BCCI source
The 23 centrally contracted players included skipper Rohit Sharma (hamstring), vice-captain KL Rahul (post hernia surgery), Cheteshwar Pujara, Shikhar Dhawan, Hardik Pandya, Umesh Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Rishabh Pant, Ishant Sharma, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Mayank Agarwal, Yuzvendra Chahal, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Bhuvneshear Kumar, Ajinkya Rahane, R Ashwin, Axar Patel, and Wriddhiman Saha.
Meanwhile, the report suggested that Virat Kohli has never visited the facility in the last year atleast for fitness-related issues. The last time Virat Kohli visited the NCA for any fitness-related issue was in 2018 when he was troubled by a back-related (herniated disc) problem, which kept him from playing county cricket. But since then, he has been the fittest senior Indian player in the park.
“To be fair, a lot of these injuries were on-field. Some were unlucky with fractures (Surya). Some had multiple issues at different times. But you have to give it to Kohli’s fitness that he has managed himself so well that he never had any hamstring or muscle-related injuries, primarily because of the kind of fitness work he does throughout the year,” a BCCI source was quoted as saying by PTI.
There were several players who required rehab were 10 years younger than Kohli and had extended periods of various types of injury lay-offs. The list included Shubman Gill, Prithvi Shaw, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Venkatesh Iyer, KS Bharat, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, Karthik Tyagi, Navdeep Saini, Rahul Chahar.
