‘Virat Kohli runs double of Ronaldo, Messi’: MSK Prasad hails super fit India skipper

It is no secret that Virat Kohli is one of the fittest athletes in the world. He has emphasized that fitness plays a major part in the performance of a sportsperson. The culture of selecting only the fit people to play for the nation (through Yo-Yo tests) came under Virat’s captaincy in the Indian cricket team.

Fitness freak!

Virat Kohli has spoken about the role of fitness and diet & nutrition for improvement of performance. In various interviews, he would speak about not eating Butter Naan and Butter Chicken for the last few years has made him The Best. Recently about a year or two ago Virat Kohli turned vegan. Team India skipper along with many leading athletes like Indian football captain Sunil Chetri has been advocates of how being vegan is being fitter.

Virat Kohli vs Messi & Ronaldo!

Virat Kohli’s fitness has been phenomenal for the past 8 years. He’s been leading the batting charts and the fitness charts too. Such levels of fitness have encouraged sports scientists to compare the endurance of Virat against some of the best footballers Messi and Ronaldo. In an interview with sportscar magazine, Indian cricket team former chief selector has said

Virat Kohli runs 17 km during a good knock with bat, double of what Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi cover

Both Messi and Ronaldo have been pushing each other to their limits over the past decade in terms of skills and fitness. The general view of the public is that a footballer needs to run more during a 90min game than that of a cricketer in a 7hrs game. But the stats don’t lie. Do they? A recent study has found that on an average, a footballer runs 8-13 kms in a game.

Messi and Ronaldo both being forwards cover 7.6km and 8.3km respectively. But the intensity with which Virat chases a ball till the boundary line while fielding and converting ones into twos while batting has all made him run more thus enhancing his reputation of one of the fittest athlete in the world.