Star India batter Virat Kohli was solely 18 when he misplaced his father. He was enjoying a Ranji Trophy match for his residence aspect Delhi towards Karnataka when he received the information of his father’s dying. His father, Prem, died on the age of 54 within the early hours on December 19, 2006. India pacer Ishant Sharma shares an in depth bond with Kohli, having performed with him since their U-17 days. Ishant recalled the day after Kohli’s father had died, labelling it because the saddest day of the batting maestro’s profession.

“The day Virat Kohli’s father passed away, he was alone & sad. He didn’t say anything and seemed very serious. I asked him why are you not saying anything. I had no idea at that time. Our video analyst told that his father had died. I didn’t knew how to react but then he batted & saved the game when he was just 17 years – till today I don’t understand how, if that happens to me, I would not have been gone to ground,” Ishant said on Beer Biceps podcast.

Just a few years again, Kohli had revealed why his father’s dying didn’t cease him from batting for Delhi.

“I still remember the night my father passed away as it was the hardest time in my life. But the call to play the morning after my father’s death came instinctively to me,” Kohli instructed CNN in 2016.

“I called my (Delhi) coach in the morning. I said I wanted to play, because for me not completing a cricket game is a sin.

“That was a second that modified me as an individual. The significance this sport holds in my life could be very, very excessive,” he added.