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, 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. His formative cricket years leading to his India U19 selection also carried clear traces of Kohli's influence.

Cricket came into his life as a hobby and just never left. For Manoj, a Superintending Engineer, and Poonam, a gynaecologist, 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 their family had a sportsman in the making. The first was during an inter-district game where a 10-year-old Vihaan covered a lot of ground and leapt to complete a tough catch.

By the time Vihaan was in eighth standard, his parents started to have serious conversations about his future. They decided to give him a couple of more years on the field at the very least.

"The thing is, for a parent, their child will always be the best cricketer. So we knew that only when he goes into a competition, we will know where he truly stands," Manoj says.

That became the second moment of affirmation. When Vihaan was in 10th standard, 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. The Jagmohan Dalmiya Trophy. That was the point where we felt that he could do well in this line," Manoj says.

Vihaan juggled academics and cricket very well, completing his 10th with 90% in ICSE board.

The formative years of Vihaan's cricket were shaped at the Cricket Hub in Patiala under Kamalpreet Sandhu. When he got to the Under-16 Punjab team, he had Ravneet Ricky – a former India U19 cricketer, as his coach.

"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. It was very difficult to score 200 runs in the U-16s. In the pressure of a semi-finals, he scored that."

Despite setting an example rooted in cricket from a different era, Vihaan is every bit a GenZ cricketer. What Ricky saw early was a ward eager to be 'positive' from the start, score quickly and 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. He also runs between the wickets very well. He has the right sensibilities for an opener."

Vihaan did bulk of his run-scoring as an opener, but has grown to be a very self-aware cricketer. 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.

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.

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.

"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."

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 as Kohli retired from T20Is. Less than two months from now, he will walk into the RCB dressing room and share the same space with the man.