Tamim a fan of Kohli's fitness and discipline

Fitness used to be a less important aspect in cricket in the earlier days of the game as cricketers used to put all their focus on just batting and bowling.

Over the years, cricketers started to pay more attention to their fitness and diet which has added much more enthusiasm and competitiveness in the fielding department as well.

The modern-day game cricket has elevated itself to a different level where fitness has emerged as the first criteria for cricketers to fulfil if they wanted to prolong their career in any format, especially after the introduction of the T20 format.

But still, cricket has remained behind compared to sports such as football when it comes to top-class fitness level.

There was a tendency for cricketers to follow athletes of other sports when it comes to their fitness regime, diet, or even maintaining a disciplined lifestyle to succeed in their career.

Things, however, have changed nowadays, with the likes of Indian skipper Virat Kohli who has set a high benchmark for the others regarding fitness, endurance, agility, and more importantly the lively presence on the field. 

Bangladesh ODI captain Tamim Iqbal, in his attempt to keep fans entertained during this coronavirus crisis, invited his Indian counterpart for a live chat on Monday night.

Kohli, who is known to be a fitness fanatic, was open to discuss about his secret of developing his batting skills and how he keeps himself fit.

According to Kohli, although he does not follow a regular pattern when it comes to his batting sessions, but his fitness and diet schedules remain the same across the year.

The Tigers ODI skipper was keen to know all the technical areas from one of the top batsmen in world cricket. Tamim was also not shy to admit that it is Kohli who is a role model for cricketers instead of athletes from other sports.

"There were times when we honestly looked up to different athletes from different sports regarding how fit they are or how disciplined they are. But now I can proudly say that we have our own, from our cricketing family which is you. Thank you very much for entertaining us," Tamim told Kohli before ending the live interaction yesterday.

The 31-year-old is undoubtedly one of the fittest cricketers the game has ever witnessed and Kohli's hard work and passion to improve himself every day has surely encouraged many other cricketers like Tamim to follow the same path.