'Bodybuilding championship chal rahi thi na' - Fans react as Ishant Sharma lauds Virat Kohli for bringing in 'fitness culture'

The veteran Indian pacer Ishant Sharma has come up with a praising statement for the former skipper and batting superstar, Virat Kohli. Ishant has hailed Virat Kohli for introducing and maintaining the ‘fitness culture’ in the Indian Team during his captaincy era. Apart from that, Ishant also drew a comparison between Virat’s captaincy era with the regimes that took over the charge in the later years.

"When Virat Kohli became the captain, he brought fitness culture into the Indian team, it became compulsory to everyone, now if you see Shami & other fast bowlers, you can see the difference, that was huge under Virat Kohli,” said Ishant Sharma to BeerBiceps YouTube Channel.

Just after Ishant’s statement, some of the Indian cricket fans immediately took to the micro-blogging site Twitter; they came up with a lot of divided opinions about Virat Kohli’s captaincy and the ‘fitness culture’ he introduced into the team.

Here’s how fans reacted:

Bodybuilding championship chal rahi thi na kyunki koi trophy toh nahi mili

— Rohit Sharma Fan🏏MI💙 (@Ro_Hitman_Fan) June 25, 2023

Kohli brought everything to Indian cricket culture,bas ICC trophy nhi laa paaya...

— dr nipun shastri (@nipun_dr_) June 25, 2023

Test captain Virat Kohli was something else!

— Sayam Ahmad (@sayam_ahmad_) June 25, 2023

Gavaskar should see this interview

— The_Wall 🇮🇳🇸🇬 (@_TheWall__) June 25, 2023

Agree, India fast bowlers under Kohli is something else

— Sultan Khan (@MainHoonSultan7) June 25, 2023

India is missing Virat Kohli - the test captain

— Shubman Gang (@ShubmanGang) June 25, 2023

Virat Kohli's leadership skills are raising the bar not just in cricket but also in fitness culture. Kudos to his efforts that have made a massive difference for Shami and other fast bowlers. See my bio bro

— 🌳lorraine_pugh🍸 (@lorrainepu48366) June 25, 2023

It’s all history now🥺 https://t.co/iyH16rlBxX

— Mid Wicket (@LawlSagittarius) June 25, 2023

After fitness culture most of the players were injured and out for many months.

— Bipin Patel (@bipin7373) June 25, 2023

Kohli contribute a lot in our fast bowling lineup

— Benzene Monoxide ☢️ (@BenzeneMonoxide) June 25, 2023

Ex - bumrah .

Bumrah spell was like 25-30 overs in test now I don't think he can spell more than 15 overs

— Joe Root (@Joeroot234) June 25, 2023

Talking about cricket, Virat Kohli will be in action with Team India in the near future during the upcoming two-match Test series followed by the three-match ODI series against West Indies. Recently, his performance was under the scanner following a failure in the World Test Championship 2023 final against Australia.

Here’s a look at the squad of Team India for Tests and ODIs for the West Indies tour:

Tests: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), KS Bharat (wicket-keeper), Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Axar Patel, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat, Navdeep Saini.

ODI: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Surya Kumar Yadav, Sanju Samson (wicket-keeper), Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya (vice-captain), Shardul Thakur, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Mohd. Siraj, Umran Malik, Mukesh Kumar.