Virat Kohli had nothing to boast of as he returned from a forgettable tour of England in 2014 with his pride dented by James Anderson. Desperate to assert himself on the big stage, Kohli dialled his Under-19 coach Lalchand Rajput. Sachin Tendulkar too had offered some tips, but a two-week training camp in Mumbai with Rajput was the real turning point in Kohli's career. Kohli's desperation was justified as the numbers — 134 runs from 5 Tests at 13 and 54 runs from 4 ODIs at 18 — reflected his struggles in the seam-friendly English conditions.
"I had known him from Under-19 days and we had a good rapport because I could understand him. I had spent a good amount of time with him — from 2006 to 2007 with India U19. So, it was good to get a call from him after that England tour in 2014, where he never had a good series," Rajput told PTI from Netherlands.
So, what were the areas he worked in Kohli's batting? "We had a two-week camp in Mumbai. By then, he had already improved a lot as a batter from his U19 days, and it was clear that he was on his way to become a great player. It was a matter of working on a few areas closely.
"His head was falling a little bit and his footwork was a little indecisive. So, we worked on those areas a bit. He has always been receptive and adaptive as a batter, and he did that here too as he quickly made the changes before going to Australia," said Rajput.
Those two weeks of rigours did not fail Kohli as the Delhi man firmly established himself as a premier batter during the tour to Australia from November 2014.
Kohli hammered twin tons in Adelaide followed by masterly hundreds in Melbourne and Sydney, aggregating 692 runs from four Tests at an average of 86.50 with four centuries.
It started Kohli's climb to peaks rarely touched by any other batters of his time, making 5347 runs from 55 matches at an average of 63.65 with 21 hundreds.
Rajput was not entirely surprised either.
"He just believes in excellence. He doesn't want to be number 2, he always wants to be number 1. That is his hunger and pride for what he plays for," he said.
However, the former India batter was a bit surprised by Kohli's sudden departure from Test cricket, a format to which he gave his heart and effort.
"I would always say that he is so fit, he could have played a couple of seasons more. He is so fit and passionate that I feel that he has plenty of cricket left in him.
"We would love to see him, but again it is his personal decision and he must have thought about it a lot before taking it and we have to respect it," he added.
Now that Kohli has retired from Test cricket, Rajput feels that the cricketing community will miss his supercharged presence.
"He really liked Test cricket and he has always advocated it. He always believed that Test cricket should be taken very seriously and he showed it by the way he used to go about in Test cricket. I think Test cricket has been very alive because of him.
"I don't know what the future holds, but definitely Test cricket will miss him. The cricket community overall will miss him," he noted.
Rajput said the next generation players will find it tough, at least initially, to replace titans like Kohli and Rohit Sharma, who had also retired from Tests a few days back.
"These shoes will be tough to fill, and there will be a lot of pressure on them. But since India has got a lot of players, I am sure somebody will raise his hand. England will be a tough tour without these two, but we have done well in the past.
"So there will be somebody who can raise his hand and say, yes, I am here on this tour and grab that opportunity with both hands," he explained.
Who should lead India in the five-match tour of England since Rohit has vacated the leadership role? "I know everyone is talking about Shubman Gill. We are thinking of him to be the future captain. But I still feel that Jasprit Bumrah should be the captain because whenever Rohit was not there, he has stepped in as a captain, and he had done well in that one Test at Perth (vs Australia)," he said.
However, Rajput said the selectors will be mulling over the fitness of Bumrah as he had to pull out of the Sydney Test against the Aussies with a back niggle.
"His fitness... I think they will be talking about whether he will be available for the whole tour or even the season or not. So that is the main point. So, I think these two are the only options right now for us," he added.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)