'Virat Kohli wasn't operating in the best version of himself': Gary Kirsten on Indian skipper's early days in international cricket

Virat Kohli has achieved several milestones in his career so far, but former India coach Gary Kirsten has recalled how the current Indian skipper was not a finished product when the former first saw him.

Virat Kohli made his debut in an ODI series against Sri Lanka in 2008 when Kirsten was the coach of India. Kirsten, who is widely credited for India’s 2011 World Cup triumph, also recalled the discussions he had with a young Kohli.

“When I met Virat first up, he had great abilities and talent and he was a young guy. But I kind of knew straight away that he wasn’t operating in the best version of himself. So we had a number of discussions,” Kirsten said on The RK show on YouTube.

“I’ll never forget one when we were playing an ODI series against Sri Lanka, and he was batting beautifully and he was on 30-odd not out. He then decided that he would try and hit the (bowler) over long-on’s head for six. And he got out."

"I just said to him, ‘If you’re going to take your cricket to the next level, you need to hit that ball down the ground for one. You know you can hit a lot of balls up the ground, but there’s a lot of risk attached to that.’ I think he took that on board, he got a hundred in the next one-day in Kolkata,” Kirsten added.

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Virat Kohli: the run-machine

Apart from winning the ODI World Cup, India also achieved the No. 1 spot in the ICC Test rankings for the first time in history under Kirsten’s coaching. The South African’s advice has indeed seemed to have helped Virat Kohli, who currently has 43 centuries in ODIs and 27 in Tests.

Among several other records, Virat Kohli is currently the leading run-scorer in T20Is and has gone past 11,000 runs in ODIs. The Delhi man, many believe, will surpass Sachin Tendulkar’s total of 100 international centuries.

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