"I was eating like a mad person" - Virat Kohli reveals diet before fitness transformation

Indian cricket team skipper Virat Kohli recently revealed his diet before his fitness transformation that has taken the cricketing fraternity by storm. Speaking to Mayank Agarwal on his show, Open Nets with Mayank, Virat Kohli talked about how he wanted to change himself entirely after the fifth season of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Virat Kohli recalled that he had started to see the changing dynamics in world cricket with fitness and intensity taking precedence in the powerhouses around the globe. He rightly felt that Indian cricket was lagging in those factors and, hence, he decided on a complete metamorphosis of himself and the Indian team.

"2012 IPL, I came back home and saw myself, was disgusted. I just wanted to change everything about myself. I also saw how the dynamics of cricket around the world were changing rapidly and how I felt we were far behind in intensity levels as other teams. They were moving far ahead of us in terms of fitness levels," Kohli told Mayank Agarwal.

Virat Kohli recollected how his fitness status always bothered him, but the realisation came after the IPL season of 2012, before which his voracious eating habits caused him much remorse. He admitted that he would finish a pack of forty toffees in a four or five-day period and the hotel would refill it every time, only to be finished by the Delhi batsman again.

"That really bothered me and it had to start at an individual level first and that realisation came to me after that IPL season in 2012 when I was eating anything that was kept in front of me. ITC Gardenia is where we used to stay, they would have a packet of Eclairs toffees in the mini-bar and they would refill it every time. I would finish a pack in 4-5 days’ time, and that was a pack of 40 toffee,” Virat Kohli said.

Virat Kohli's outlook towards cricket completely changed after the 2012 edition of the IPL

The fifth edition of the IPL was one of the worst seasons for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) skipper as he managed to score only 364 runs from 16 matches at an average of 28. These numbers were not up to the standards he had set for himself in the previous season. In 2011, Virat Kohli had made 557 runs, averaging 46.41 with four half-centuries.

The premier batsman confessed that his eating habits were imprudent at that time. His success made Virat Kohli believe that he would dominate again, but he failed to do so. The current Indian captain recalled that he did not handle the failure very well back then.

"That was my diet at that time, I was eating like a mad person because that phase happened where I got all the success and everything was going well. I went into the IPL thinking that I'm going to dominate but that didn't turn out well and things didn't process that way. Things happened, I did not appreciate and respect it then." Virat Kohli said.

However, immediately after that season, Virat Kohli realised that he needed to adapt to the changing demands of cricket and decided to adopt a whole new outlook towards how he was going to prepare from then on.

"I was thrown back down then I went back home, realised that I need to change everything from the way I'm thinking and preparing. Changed it from next day onwards when I came back home. From then on my whole outlook towards how I want to prepare completely changed," Virat Kohli added.

Meanwhile, the IPL is all set to be hosted in the UAE with the tournament expected to begin at the end of September. Earlier, the IPL had been postponed indefinitely due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. However, it seems that the 13th edition of the IPL might finally come to fruition.

In fact, Chairman of the IPL Governing Council, Brijesh Patel, recently revealed that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has officially sent a letter of acceptance to the Emirates Cricket Board (ECB) to host the IPL.