The Gujarat Titans fast bowler Pradeep Sangwan has shared an old story about his teenage friend and former Indian captain Virat Kohli with whom he played age group cricket for Delhi and came through the ranks to eventually represent the state side at the senior level.
Pradeep Sangwan, while talking to News24, said that the story is of those days when he and Virat used to play U17 cricket together. Virat, as he has been at every level, was very consistent as a batsman in those days as well and had scored two double hundreds that season, but after he got dismissed for low scores in a couple of games, the coach decided to play a prank on him.
According to Sangwan, the coach had no intention of dropping Virat as he knew about his abilities, but he told the teammates of Virat that he would play a prank on him and tell him that he was not going to play the next game. Virat’s teammates were asked not to tell the truth to Virat and let him wonder.
Virat Kohli couldn’t believe he was dropped despite scoring double hundreds: Pradeep Sangwan
Pradeep Sangwan said when the coach didn’t name Virat in the team that he announced, Virat got so emotional that he started crying, and later he had a sleepless night. He had a direct conversation with the coach about how he could be dropped when he scored runs two matches ago.
Sangwan said Kohli even came to him as he was one of his closest friends and asked him the same question how he could be dropped when he had weight of runs behind him. But, later the coach told him that it was only a prank and he would feature in the playing XI.
Pradeep Sangwan is one of those players in the Indian domestic circuit who know Virat very well as the two of them have spent plenty of time together in junior cricket.
