Former India men’s cricket team coach Paddy Upton drew a striking comparison between the national men’s hockey team and star batter Virat Kohli, highlighting their fitness and mental toughness. On Monday, September 1, the Indian men’s hockey side hammered Kazakhstan 15-0 in their final league match of the ongoing Asia Cup.
In a conversation with Mid-day.com after the dominant win, Upton remarked that each player in the Indian hockey team matched Virat Kohli’s standards, calling the entire squad “as good as Kohli.”
“Virat, at his level of fitness and dedication, is unique in world cricket but here each player is as good as him. This is a team of 18 or 20 Virat Kohlis when it comes to that level of physicality,” he was quoted as saying by the aforementioned source.
Paddy Upton, who was a key figure in India’s 2011 Cricket World Cup triumph, is now working as the mental conditioning coach for the national men’s hockey team. He asserted that the hockey squad surpasses the 2011 World Cup-winning cricket team when it comes to their commitment and determination to consistently enhance their performance.
“If I compare the dedication to sleeping, eating, training of this team to my time in Indian cricket, these guys are another five leagues above that Indian cricket team,” he said.
Robin Uthappa Reveals What Strained His Relationship With Virat Kohli
In a recent conversation on his YouTube channel, former India batter Robin Uthappa revealed how his relationship with Virat Kohli was affected by comments he made in a podcast. Uthappa had blamed Kohli’s leadership style for the exits of Yuvraj Singh and Ambati Rayudu from the national team.
However, he clarified that he did not mean to talk about Kohli as a person and only spoke about his leadership style. He admitted that he should have spoken to the former India captain before making the comments and considering his feelings. Uthappa also revealed that he later reached out to Virat, acknowledged his mistake, and apologized.
“In that whole conversation, the intent was not to speak about Virat. That interview was meant to be about me. I was asked a question which I answered. I didn’t consider the sentiments of Virat or that even if this is what I believe, he should know it, and that gives me the right to voice it. My relationship with Virat was impacted by that. My learning was, when I spoke to him, I should have spoken to him before,” he said on his YouTube channel.
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