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Story of An 18-Year-Old Virat Kohli's Great Mental Strength To Overcome His Father's Tragic Death 

image-lko34azpVirat Kohli's childhood photo with his father (Twitter)

Virat Kohli, one of the greatest ever to play the game of cricket is an inspiration for generations. His cricketing skills and his mental strength has been the talk of the town for over a decade now and the man just continues to grow from strength to strength, aging like a fine wine. However, whatever Kohli is today is because of the sacrifices and the maturity he has shown for a very young age.

It was back in 2006, when Virat Kohli was rising through the ladders of Delhi cricket as a young 18-year-old teenager. He was playing a Ranji game for Delhi against Karnataka and after Karnataka posted a healthy 446 in the first innings, Delhi were reeling at 14-3 when Virat Kohli walked out to the middle. Soon, he lost two more partners and Delhi were reduced to 59-5.  Kohli though along with Punit Bisht made sure that Delhi end the day with no more damage and Kohli was unbeaten on 40 at the end of the day. 

However, little did the young man know that he was about to suffer the biggest loss of his life. His father had a heart attack around 2.30 a.m. in the morning and could not be saved despite the best efforts of the family. After such an event, naturally,any kid will be broken,and one cannot expect someone to turn up for a cricket match just a few hours later. Kohli, however, called his coach and told him that he would play, as missing a cricket match was not acceptable to him. 

The young man came out to bat a few hours later and showed tremendous mental strength on his way to a gritty knock of 90 off 238 balls as he stitched together a match-saving 156-run stand with Punit Bisht.

 Recently, in a talk show called ‘In Depth with Graham Bensinger’, Kohli revealed that the only reason he went out to bat after his father's death was because his father wanted him to prioritize cricket and his dream of playing for India above everything else.

"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."

Kohli got a standing ovation from his teammates after that knock and even broke down in the dressing room as his teammates consoled him. Since then, Virat Kohli has never looked back and has become the epitome of mental strength that has made him a legend of the game.