Suresh Batra, who coached Virat Kohli during his teenage years, passes away at 53
Suresh Batra, a Delhi-based coach who trained Indian captain Virat Kohli during his early years in cricket, is no more. Batra (53) was an assistant coach to Rajkumar Sharma, Virat Kohli’s childhood coach.
Renowned sports journalist Vijay Lokapally announced the demise of Batra in a tweet. He wrote:
“Suresh Batra (striped t-shirt), who coached @imVkohli when he was a teenager, passed away on Thursday. He had finished his daily morning puja and collapsed. He was 53.”
In the same tweet, Lokapally quoted Kohli’s childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma as saying:
“I lost my younger brother. Knew him since 1985.”
According to reports, Virat Kohli started training under Sharma and Batra at the age of nine.
Besides Virat Kohli, Manjot Kalra, who scored a hundred in the 2018 U-19 World Cup final against Australia, also trained under Batra.
Virat Kohli is regarded as one of the greatest batsmen of modern-day cricket
Rising through the ranks of Delhi cricket, Virat Kohli has gone on to become one of the legends of the game. He made his international debut in 2008 and has since gone on to feature in 91 Tests, 254 ODIs and 90 T20Is.
Virat Kohli has amassed 7490 runs in Tests, 12169 runs in one-dayers and 3159 runs in T20Is. He has a total of 70 international hundreds to his name.
The 32-year-old was a member of the 2011 World Cup-winning squad, which was led by MS Dhoni. This was his maiden World Cup.
Virat Kohli is India’s most successful captain in Test matches, with 36 wins from 60 games. India are currently the top-ranked side in the longer format of the game, as per the ICC cricket rankings.
Virat Kohli has 6076 runs in 199 IPL matches for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at a strike rate of 130.41. He has five hundreds and 40 fifties to his name in the T20 league and is the only batsman to breach the 6000-run mark in the IPL.
Virat Kohli’s next assignment will be leading the Indian team in England, where the side will feature in the World Test Championship (WTC) Final against New Zealand and five Tests against England.