Virat Kohli revealed that he had promised his family that he would go on to play for the country as it was his father’s dream to see his son playing at the highest level. (Source: AP)Virat Kohli revealed that he had promised his family that he would play for the country as it was his father’s dream to see him playing at the highest level. The Indian skipper’s father had passed away on December 2006 and he feels that it was the ‘most impactful’ moment of his life and since then it has helped him resist the difficult times.
The Indian skipper was 18-years-old when his father passed away and was representing Delhi in a Ranji Trophy match against Karnataka. He was unbeaten on 40 and despite hearing the sad news of his father’s demise, Kohli continued playing in the match, adding another 50 to his overnight score, thus helping his side edge past the follow-on score.
“I was playing a four-day game at the time and was supposed to resume batting the next day when this (father passed) happened at 230 odd in the morning. We all woke up but had no idea what to do. I literally saw him breathe his last,” the Indian skipper told Graham Bensinger in an interview.
“We drove him to the hospital where unfortunately they could not help revive him. My family broke down but I could not cry and there was no emotion. I could not register what had happened and I was blank. I called my coach in the morning and told him what had happened and that I wanted to play because leaving a cricket match was not acceptable to me no matter what,” he added.
“While my teammates were consoling me in the dressing room I got overwhelmed by the emotion and broke down. Now I feel like it was the most impactful thing to have happened in my life. I came back from the game for the last rites and promised my brother that I will play for India. My father was keen that I play for India and that was when everything in life became second priority. Cricket became the first priority.”
“Falling down and fighting back is part of sport and life, but the ability to comeback made me realise that one incident had made me so strong. The ability to comeback became so much more stronger and right now I feel grateful that I could get the kind of strength from such a difficult point in life,” he added.
Kohli led India to U-19 World Cup glory in 2008 and in the same year he made his ODI debut. He was also part of the World Cup-winning squad in 2011 and went on to make his Test debut against West Indies later that year.
The right-handed batsman recently became India’s most successful captain after winning the recently-concluded Test series 2-0 against West Indies.
