‘Something very beautiful about it’: Robin Uthappa remembers the day when Virat Kohli batted through grief

Former Karnataka player Robin Uthappa recalled a remarkable incident since 2006, when an 18-year-old Virat Kohli batted for Delhi in a Ranji Trophy match against Karnataka, just hours after his father’s death, scored 90 runs to help his team to escape the follow-on. Uthappa shared his memories of seeing Kohli’s flexibility during that challenging moment on the Kimappa show.The incident occurred when Kohli was batting overnight at 40, when his father Prem Kohli suffered a cardiac arrest and died at 2:30 pm. Despite the tragedy, the young cricketer continued to play the next day.Kohli first shared his experience of that difficult moment in an interview with Graham Bansinger.“I was playing a four -day game at the time and the next day was about to start the batting when it was 230 odd time in the morning. We all woke up, but I did not know what to do. I really saw him to take my last breath. I called my coach in the morning and told me what I was doing, I didn’t say that I was not accepting this. Kohli said.Quiz: Who is that IPL player?In that match, Uthappa, who was playing for Karnataka, described his comments of young Kohli’s performance during that innings.“We heard about Virat, we heard about the death of the father of this young child. There were some houses that we needed to do as an additional fielder and all this is worried. But then he came to bat the next day, which was very incredible. I remember that he was speaking for about 30 seconds. When he bats, he did not bat, not very much firm.

Uthappa also mentioned how this incident gave him his first glimpse of Kohli’s possible greatness.“The way he went about his innings was unprecedented, more than cricket, I remember the way he used to organize himself. For me, this was the first time I saw the thirst and perhaps Virat Kohli’s greatness, just Virat as a player.