Giant strides of a self-confessed Kohli nut

An evening last December left the Malhotras momentarily lost for words. Manoj and Poonam were on a video call with their son Vihaan, who was in Dubai playing in the U19 Asia Cup. For a few moments, no one spoke. They just smiled and nodded to silently acknowledge what had just happened. Earlier that day, Vihaan had been in the middle of a match against Malaysia. Back home in Patiala, his parents were glued to the television, waiting for the paddles to go up. It took a long time coming, but when it did, it came from the table Vihaan would've hoped for - RCB had just secured the services of a self-confessed Virat Kohli nut.

The 2007-born Vihaan is a child of the IPL era, who grew up watching and fervently rooting for Kohli. During IPL evenings at home, anyone backing another team or player wouldn't find a seat next to him. His formative cricket years leading to his India U19 selection also carried clear traces of Kohli's influence.

Vihaan's cricket sojourn is not typically characterised by early struggle and uncomfortable sacrifices or is one that's vicariously being lived through him by his parents. Cricket came into his life as a hobby and just never left. For Manoj, a Superintending Engineer in the Punjab State Water Supply & Sanitation Department, and Poonam, a gynaecologist working as Rural Medical Officer in Patiala, cricket was a simple outlet for all the hyper energy their six-year-old son had to burn.

But over the next few years, this 'hobby' began to shape-shift into something more serious. For Manoj, there were two standout moments that convinced him that their family of academic high achievers had a sportsman in the making. The first was during an inter-district game where a 10-year-old Vihaan was sent out to field. When a ball was hit towards the long-off boundary, Vihaan covered a lot of ground running and leapt to complete what was regarded as a tough catch. It was a small moment, but one that remains etched in Manoj's memory.

But such fleeting moments don't always lead to a career, and Manoj knew it. By the time Vihaan was in eighth standard, Manoj and Poonam started to have serious conversations about what should lie ahead. Poonam felt it was time for Vihaan to join a coaching institute where he would have to attend classes 4-5 hours a day beyond his school hours. Manoj pushed back and argued that it would kill any hopes of keeping his cricket running simultaneously. They eventually put a pin on the idea of redirecting him away from the sport, and decided to give him a couple of more years on the field at the very least.

That became the second moment of affirmation for Manoj. When Vihaan was in 10th standard and in the midst of pursuing his cricket seriously, he had his breakout tournament. He amassed 978 runs in 15 innings for the eventual champions Punjab U16 team in the Vijay Merchant Trophy with three hundreds and five fifties. "He got an award from the BCCI [for his batting]. The Jagmohan Dalmiya Trophy. That was the point where we felt that he could do well in this line," Manoj says.

"I think, we had a few discussions. Sometimes, it happens that the performance is not good. Then there is tension. Because, in sports, if you don't shine, then you don't know what will happen next. But, seeing his passion, we never thought of taking him out of sports and diverting him just towards studies. Because, he kept it running parallel," Manoj says.

They were also buoyed by Vihaan's single-minded focus to keep playing, even if conditions and facilities at lower level weren't pristine. Travelling in trains without reservation to Delhi and Agra for matches and sleeping on the floor in dorms during school tournaments were some of the basic discomforts that he embraced without hesitation, even while his parents wondered if they needed to do more in the way of offering him comfort.

The formative years of Vihaan's cricket were shaped at the Cricket Hub in Patiala under Kamalpreet Sandhu, who added game sense to a young and enthusiastic boy. When he got to the Under-16 Punjab team, he had Ravneet Ricky - a former India U19 cricketer, as his coach. As this alliance grew, the seeds of that near-1000 run campaign were sown. "We used to talk that time during his Under-16 days that if he scores 1000 runs in a season, only then he will move up to Under-19 level," Ricky tells Cricbuzz.

"In the Under 16s, we had a semifinal game with Mumbai in the Vijay Merchant Trophy," Ricky says. "He scored 200 runs in that game [230 off 416]. It was very difficult to score 200 runs in the U-16s. In the pressure of a semi-finals, he scored that. When the match got over, the then Mumbai coach told his players during the post-match ceremony that Vihaan is the kind of player who can score big and along the ground. He had hit just one six in that knock. He motivated Vihaan, and also told his own team about how to play. That's when I felt he's grown up now and is now ready for higher cricket ahead," Ricky adds.

Despite setting an example rooted in cricket from a different era, Vihaan is every bit a GenZ cricketer. What Ricky saw early in his time with Vihaan was a ward eager to be 'positive' from the start, score quickly and importantly, run well between the stumps - another page straight out of Kohli's copybook.

"He always wants to score from the very first ball. That is very rare. Normally, people go with a defensive approach. They use different tactics. In the beginning, they try to see the pitch. He has always been like whatever the pitch, I have to try and start fast. He also runs between the wickets very well. He has the right sensibilities for an opener. He wouldn't let pressure build up on him. Turning good balls into singles is also an important quality and he has that."

Vihaan did bulk of his run-scoring as an opener, but has grown to be a very self-aware cricketer, adapting on the go if situations demanded it. Until last year's Under-19 Asia Cup, he was India Under-19's No.3 batter. At that multi-team event, he batted at No.4 and has been asked to essay a similar role in the ongoing World Cup, where he has also bowled effective off-spin. It wasn't straightforward for Vihaan to replicate the demands of the India Under-19 side with the state team, where the likes of Anmoljeet, Aryan Yadav and Arjun Rajput were already ahead of him in the off-spin pecking order.

"Recently when he came to me, he said sir they're looking at me as an all-rounder in the U19 team, so I'd like to bowl when I get the chance. Unfortunately, he didn't get chances because we had 3-4 off-spinners," Ricky says. "With Vaibhav Suryavanshi and Ayush Mhatre already established as the openers, to make a place in that side even with them was a challenge he took upon himself. He was of the mindset that I will try to perform in whichever position I get an opportunity and try to make that position mine. And he's done that too," he adds.

Vihaan has had a busy and eventful calendar since last June when he played five Youth ODIs and two Youth Tests in England. He came away with 243 runs in five 50-over innings and 277 in four Test innings, with a century scored in each. In Australia next, in September-October, Vihaan managed 124 runs in three youth ODI innings, and then topped the batting charts in the tri-series at home involving India Under-19 A - which he captained, India Under-19 B and Afghanistan Under-19. Those runs came in the top-order but he has seamlessly shifted to a spot or two down to fulfil the demands of the team. He started the World Cup with a four-wicket haul against USA, and then scored a century against Zimbabwe, following in the footsteps of Ricky who did it in 2000. Vihaan will hope the similarities in achievements don't end with that century - Ricky went on to lift what was India's first Under-19 World Cup title.

Vihaan's malleability to demands of the game and team have extended well beyond the Under-19 level. "He plays the short balls well, pulls well and hits nicely through the line," Ricky says. "Now he's developed the reverse sweep. He's also started to make room and hit over cover. So he's started to adapt his game from even before getting picked in the IPL. Because he was of the mindset that if I have to play at the higher level and cement my place in the Punjab side in Ranji trophy or white ball cricket, I will have to enhance my batting."

He has yet to feature in a competitive T20 game at the highest level but RCB liked what they saw of him in the formats he has excelled in so far as they nabbed him at base price at the auction last year. Less than two years ago, Vihaan was in tears and nearly inconsolable as Kohli retired from T20Is. It was like a part of his growing up years - when he followed the India cricketer religiously, had been yanked away from him. Less than two months from now, he will walk into the RCB dressing room and share the same space with the man - a sweet culmination of all the years of effort and energy channelised to perfection.

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