Virat Kohli shares his method of making the youngsters comfortable around him

At just 30 Virat Kohli has achieved what most players fail to accomplish even in their entire career. With his remarkable and unprecedented consistency, Kohli has left his contemporaries too far behind. Irrespective of the format and conditions, the Indian captain has been scoring runs at will. 2018 was yet another successful year for him both as a batsman and as a captain. The right-hander scored 2735 runs across all formats with 11 hundreds and also became the first Asian captain to register Test wins in Australia, England and South Africa in the same calendar year.

The Boxing Day Test win at the MCG gave Kohli his 11th away Test win as captain in just 24 Tests. With 1322 runs in 13 Tests, Kohli sits head and shoulders above the rest as the highest run-scorer this year in the format. The five hundreds that he scored is also the most by any batsman in 2018.

He has been rated one of the best athletes in the world at the moment, has become India’s poster boy with his remarkable performance on the field. Kohli has already left the likes of Ricky Ponting, Sanath Jayasuriya and Sourav Ganguly well behind to become the second highest centurion in ODIs. In just 208 innings, he has scored a staggering 38 tons and needs 12 more to break Sachin Tendulkar’s record. In Tests, he has scored 25 tons. At the same time, he averages more than 50 in ODIs and Tests and nearly 50 in T20Is.

Friend not senior

Not surprisingly, Kohli can be intimidating for any player in the world right now let alone a youngster. His stature can make the others think twice before approaching or opening up to him. However, Kohli, who is adored by his teammates, has revealed that he rarely acts like a senior and loves to keep things light.

“In all honesty, I cannot behave like a senior. I can’t do it even when someone gives me a lot of respect. I can’t relate to myself as a senior cricketer,” Kohli said in a video for his app.

He further said that he always ends up cracking a joke when someone tries to be too respectful.

“If someone comes and starts saying things, which are too respectful, I crack some joke and be like ‘itna bhi koi serious hone ki zarurat nahi hai’ (you don’t have to be this serious also). So I try to make them comfortable immediately. Because I like the idea of people opening up,” Kohli said.

“I don’t like the idea of not speaking up or not knowing what’s going on. We should be organic and that’s the way I like it,” he added.

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