He pushed himself to the extreme to emerge as the best batsman in the world. With single-minded devotion, Virat Kohli has also transformed himself from a man with rich batting prowess to a world-class athlete with phenomenal strength and fitness levels. Team India’s Head Strength and Conditioning coach Shanker Basu, who has overseen Kohli’s inspiring transformation shares the journey that first started with an aim to keep India’s precious cricketer injury-free with BCCI.TV Excerpts: Was there any sort of reluctance in the beginning when the concept of weight training and power work was introduced to the cricketers? When I took over in August 2015, many of the boys had graduated from the U-19 level and I had worked with most of them. I had a working relationship with them, so it was easy for me to step in and put my work across. Thanks to my predecessors who had already done a lot of good work, my job was to continue from there and take it to the next level. I have progressed just like any other S&C coach. I introduced power training which is very essential owing to different demands of the game. If someone wants to bowl at 140kph in a Test match, he needs to work in a specific fashion where he retains power and endurance for a certain amount of time. How has Virat Kohli managed to attain peak fitness levels? A lot of athletes will say that they are very lucky to find a coach, but I will instead say that Virat Kohli is an exceptional person, so I was very lucky to have an athlete like him. He is extremely professional. My association with him dates back to eight years through IPL. He has always been a great athlete and it is a treat to work with him. Virat will never challenge you once he is convinced about your methods. I found an athlete who was ready to go through the grind and work hard consistently whenever the need arose. He is very good with his nutrition plans and discipline factors. He has also made a lot of lifestyle changes. Kudos to him. I was just a tool. I only introduced him to the right kind of strength work which was already building thanks to my predecessors. When I joined the Indian team full time, I was able to spend more quality time on a daily basis. That probably was the icing on the cake as about 90 per cent of the work was done by him and I just provided the finishing touch. How did this transformation begin? What target did you have for him initially? We did not have a specific target. All that we wanted to do was to keep him injury-free. He had a few concerns and we talked about that. I told him let’s progress in a slow, gradual but still a very assured way and he was all game. All I taught him was technique as I am a stickler for technique. I grilled him and all he did was use the dowel-rod for a long time to learn the technique. Once he mastered the technique, it was game, set and match. Once he learnt the movement, it was easy for me to teach him explosive moves pertaining to his sport and that converged with his extraordinary discipline and hunger for excellence. Kohli once said that he has to tweak his game as he cannot hit sixes like others. This IPL, he hit 38 sixes which is the most this season and 15 more than his last season’s tally. There is a definite surge in his power. In September we got an assessment of his muscle mass. At the end of the season, we wanted to see if there was a change and what we noticed was his muscle mass had increased dramatically. In the last six months, he has put a lot of time in developing his strength, mass and power. The skills were there. That was the fillip he required and it may have helped his big hitting. Is it possible for him to still reach the next level? There is always a scope for improvement. He can raise the bar. He has very strong goals, lofty ambitions and his aspirations are unbelievable. He is willing to bend backward to reach there. He is one guy who is in pursuit of excellence. The present goal is to increase his strength. Virat has decided to become the best athlete in the world and sky is the limit. There a lot of role models ahead of him in terms of sheer athletic abilities and he will never shy away from competition. He will grab it with both hands. Virat will pursue it honestly and earnestly. He will not rest until his goal is reached. Team India members are serious about their fitness. There is a healthy competition. There are lots of players in the Indian team who are in pursuit of excellence and Virat is the front-runner. He is just the tip of the iceberg, there are lots more to come. Virat is a great role model in terms of his approach towards his game, towards lifestyle, his nutrition and training. He inspires a lot of people around him. He has made my job a lot easier as he motivates others, whereas I am just required to do my work. It is important that a cricketer continues to practice what he is taught. How do you ensure that the prescribed training routine is being followed even when he is not a part of the setup? Most of the modern cricketers do their follow-ups very diligently. There was a time when they were slightly naughty, but not anymore. I don’t think there is an effort from my side as most cricketers ask about the follow-up when they leave the camp. The credit must go to the Indian cricketers. The hunger which I see in Indian cricketers is just unbelievable.