‘Used to finish a pack of Eclairs in 4-5 days’ time’: Virat Kohli describes his once-bad eating habits – cricket

India captain Virat Kohli is one of the fittest cricketers in world cricket but there was a time when his association with fitness wasn’t as dedicated as it is now. History has it that it was in 2012 when Kohli realised how out of shape he was and one look at himself in the mirror is all it took the batsman to entirely overhaul his fitness and eating habits. Touching upon his fitness revolution, Kohli described the series of events leading up to his amazing physical transformation.

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“2012 IPL I came back home and saw myself, was disgusted. I just wanted to change everything about myself. I also saw how the dynamics of cricket around the world were changing rapidly and how I felt we were far behind in intensity levels as other teams. They were moving far ahead of us in terms of fitness levels,” Kohli told India teammate Mayank Agarwal in a chat.

“That really bothered me and it had to start at an individual level first and that realisation came to me after that IPL season in 2012 when I was eating anything that was kept in front of me. ITC Gardenia is where we used to stay, they would have a packet of Eclairs toffees in the mini-bar and they would refill it every time. I would finish a pack in 4-5 days’ time, and that was a pack of 40 toffees.”

As Kohli mentioned, 2012 edition of the IPL wasn’t his best season with a tally of 364 runs from 16 matches at an average of 28, especially given how good the year before was for Kohli. In 2011, Kohli had scored 557 runs, averaging 46.41 with four half-centuries. Kohli has time and again mentioned his addiction towards junk food back in the day and how he made a wise decision giving it up.

“That was my diet at that time, I was eating like a mad person because that phase happened where I got all the success and everything was going well and I went into the IPL thinking that I’m going to dominate,” said the India captain.

“But that didn’t turn out well and things didn’t process that way. Things happened, I did not appreciate and respect it then… I was thrown back down then I went back home, realised that I need to change everything from the way I’m thinking and preparing. Changed it from next day onwards when I came back home. From then on my whole outlook towards how I want to prepare completely changed.”