Yuzvendra Chahal reveals how Virat Kohli turned around his life, fitness lifestyle
Mumbai: In the past few years, Yuzvendra Chahal’s stock has potentially risen in international cricket under the leadership of Virat Kohli. His wile in crunch situations and variation bowling have seen the Team India leg-spinner achieve massive success with the national team.
Kohli never shies away from handing the ball to the Haryana spinner be it India or for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the Indian Premier League (IPL), that shows the trust he places in him.
Chahal, who recently appeared on Gaurav Kapoor’s chat show Breakfast with Champions, revealed how Kohli has positively impacted his life and changed his outlook towards fitness.
"Virat bhaiya (big brother) inspires me a lot. Both on and off the field, he helps me a lot. He told me that my life has changed and I need to stay fit. Now I know that fitness is important. Even I am feeling better after working out", he said.
The 27-year-old also revealed that Shane Warne was his childhood cricketing hero while growing up. The leg-spinner even disclosed how similar his bowling action was to the Australian legend before he decided to rework on it.
"Shane Warne was my cricketing hero while growing up. First, my action was similar to his, during under 14 days. But during a U-19 match, I changed my action as the pitch was not helping much and I saw Piyush bhaiya (Piyush Chawla) bowl with slightly high run-up which assured me of accuracy if not much spin. I ran a little longer and knew there will be less spin and that paid dividends. That turned out to be my best decision. I never overthink in pressure situations because now I am mentally strong", Chahal added.
Together with Kuldeep Yadav, Chahal has formed a lethal spin bowling partnership in Team India’s limited-overs set up. He has so far claimed 43 ODI wickets in 23 matches with 35 T20I strikes in 21 matches. Despite RCB’s dismal run in IPL 2018, Chahal scalped 12 wickets from 14 matches, with a decent economy rate of 7.26.
