Watch: Emotional Virat Kohli Reveals Tragic Death of his Father in his Arms

Virat Kohli is arguably the best batsman in the world right now. His rise from a rookie to the best in the business in a matter of years has been nothing short of a fairytale. Kohli has not looked back since leading India to the title in Under-19 World Cup in 2008 in Malaysia.

He was fast-tracked into the senior team and did not take long to become the batting mainstay of the side across formats. However, the start of his professional career was not as smooth as his career right now. He was only 18 when destiny threw a massive hurdle in front of him.

Virat Kohli’s father died on 18 December 2006 due to a stroke after being bed-ridden for a month. It was in the wee hours that Kohli Senior succumbed to a heart attack.

Kohli was playing a Ranji Trophy match against Karnataka. He was batting on 40 overnight. Much to the surprise of his teammates, Kohli returned and scored 90 to save Delhi from a follow-on.

And more than a decade after that tragic incident, Virat Kohli has revealed how things went on that fateful night. In an interview with National Geographic, the India skipper revealed how his father died in his arms while his family was pleading for help.

“It happened in my arms. It was 3 in the morning, and I was batting overnight. I was 40 not out, and I had to go in the morning and bat the next day because it was a four-day Ranji Trophy cricket. We just couldn’t get help. We tried to get help from the neighbours, whoever we knew was a doctor. It was such a time of the night that no one was responded,” he said.

“By the time ambulance and everything came, everything was already gone,” he added.

He further said how his father’s death made him more focused.

“I think I became much more focussed after that (father’s death). I lost total desire of wanting to do the other stuffs and put all my energy into realising my dream and my father’s dream as well. “

Meanwhile, the current India captain has been selected to receive this year’s Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award. The 29-year will get presented with the prestigious award by President, Ram Nath Kovind at a specially organised function at the Rashtrapati Bhawan on Tuesday.

However, Kohli recently returned from England where he had a terrific series with the bat. The Delhi batsman thoroughly dominated the Tests series with the bat. He scored 593 runs while the next best for India was KL Rahul with 299 runs. Kohli’s tally was the second-best for India against England in England. He missed Rahul Dravid’s record of 602 runs from 2002.

Meanwhile, VK has captained for three years now, and he had lad the run charts for India in eight of the 13 series he has been involved in.

As of now, he is not the part of the Asia Cup 2018 as the BCCI had planned to give some rest to him.