Flavour of the season for Indian cricketers
With Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli turning vegan, it is also emerging that vegetarianism is gaining strong grounds in the national cricket team.
Cricketers like Ishant Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Shikhar Dhawan, Ravichandran Ashwin and Mayank Agarwal are in the list of ‘vegetarians’, while the likes of Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami, KL Rahul, Ajinkya Rahane and Rishab Pant still prefer hovering around the non-vegetarian counter.
It is turning out to be a personal choice for cricketers who have embraced a vegetarian diet, while there are others like Pujara, whose grandfather was also a vegetarian, and hence he has taken to vegetarianism. Of course, there is no forced regime from the team management to turn vegetarian and neither is there a drive to impress the captain, the players have turned it around as per their choice.
It is understood that there is also a diet-plan given to each and every player based on the fitness regime by the team trainer. Those plans are monitored regularly by the team management, especially when there is less of a work-out for bowlers on account of the coronavirus pandemic.
Indian cricket team members happy to maintain a diet
What is more interesting is that Indian cricketers get a variety of choices when they are playing international cricket at home, while the menu card has limited items when the team travels abroad. Despite everything, there is no fuss in the team. With no tantrums put forward by the Indian team members, this is without a doubt the most well-behaved team.
There are days when Rohit doesn’t get his share of Japanese food, former Indian captain MS Dhoni doesn’t get his choice of butter-chicken, Shami has had to stay away from biriyani and the likes of Bumrah, Rahul and Pant don’t get their choice of a non-vegetarian platter…but no one ever complained.
There is the sentiment of staying away from chicken related products due to steroid used for quick growth of chicks, and so it is understood that chicken isn’t a healthy choice. Yes, farm-grown organic produce is always the best option. Even eggs and red meat are bad choices, but knowing the diet is something that comes completely naturally for Kohli and his men!