What as Defense aspirant can we learn from Virat Kohli

Cricketer Virat Kohli – an idol for the present day youth of India. A typical modern-day cricketer, Virat Kohli plays his game aggressively, bares his emotions loudly in public, yet retains the element of maturity that forms an integral part of every good and great player. 

Anil Kumble said he had thought hard before calling Kohli the best under-22 player in international cricket - that would rate as perhaps the best compliments he has received. The king of chases as many of his fans have christened him, Kohli is a deeply hammered nail across all formats in the Indian national team.

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As SSB aspirant we can learn from his leadership that he displays on field:

·         Playing or doing your job responsibly: Virat Kohli has led from the front in the series, hitting two match-winning knocks of 167 and 235. In both the innings, he gave due respect to the opposition bowlers, left balls outside off stump, played every ball on merit and never gave into the temptation to play over aggressively.

·         Attribute it to team work: A hallmark of a leader is that he attribute the success to his team and takes all the blame on his head. Skipper Kohli has been bang on in this respect. He has counted all the good work of each and every player, giving them due credit and praised them wholeheartedly. He expressed confidence in each of his players to give their best for their team. He motivated players with his kind words of praise. And the result is obvious, a new player in Jayant Yadav hit his maiden Test ton, in just his third match coming in at No 9.

·         Giving tit for tat: Kohli is not the skipper to take things lying down. When Ben Stokes ignited the war of words in the Vizag Test, Kohli did not refrain from giving it back to the England all-rounder. After Stokes had put his hands on his mouth when Kohli was dismissed in the Vizag Test first innings, Kohli gave him a tit for that when he kept his fingers in his mouth when Stokes was dismissed next in the second innings. Kohli met fire with fire and aggression with aggression.

·         Taking opposition’s words with a pinch of a salt: A leader does not care much about what is being spoken or written about him or his team by anyone, be it critics or opposition. So, when Anderson made a dig at Kohli for his poor performance in 2014 series in England, Kohli had laughed it away. However, Ashwin has had a war of words with Anderson on the fifth day’s play of the Wankhede Test. Kohli intervened to diffuse the tension and did not care much as the result of the series proved everything he has to say.

·         Backing your colleagues: In this series, every player has contributed with their performance. When regular keeper W Saha was injured and out, Parthiv Patel came good in his comeback Test as Kohli and team management backed him wholeheartedly. Jayant Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin have had the backing of Kohli to play the way they want and all won the match on their all-round performance in Mohali. Backing your teammates is extremely vital for the success of the team.

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Kohli's unbeaten streak as captain has now stretched to 13 Tests captain. Among all Indian captains, only three have had a longer run. Virat Kohli has the record of fastest 1000 runs as ODI captain. He is continuously breaking the records. World also thinks he can be the next Sachin.

As SSB Aspirants we should also build the leader within after proper identification. We all who dare to prepare for defense have OLQ’s in us, the need is to just identify them in time through introspection technique and start working on our profile. Unless we know where we are wrong, it’s always difficult to correct the mistake. So what are you waiting for, get started and be a Hero!!

About the Author: Tanmoy is from West Bengal currently doing private job in Manesar, Haryana. He did his Graduation in B.E. Production Engineering from PEC University of Technology, Chandigarh. His aim is to become an officer in Indian Army. His hobbies are gym and teaching and he wants to help the aspirants across the nation through this.