Indian cricket at one point in time was blessed to have two commanders in the field during ODIs, featuring current captain Virat Kohli, and former skipper MS Dhoni.
MSD was heard giving advice to his bowlers, or the captain, taking the liberty of setting fields. Also, the stump mics copped MS conversing with Kohli on several occasions, using his nickname ‘Cheeku’.
During a recent conversation on Instagram live with Kevin Pietersen, Kohli revealed that it was the Indian captain, who made his nickname famous, which he got during his junior cricketing days.
“MS (Dhoni) has sort of made my nickname famous from behind the stumps. In the stumps pic, people pick up,” Kohli said.
Virat talked about being a chubby teenager, and it was just one haircut which made him look like a bunny with long ears. So, his coach mocked Kohli by calling him ‘Cheeku’, which is a character of a famous Indian comic book ‘Champak’.
“I got this nickname from the coach that we had in the state team, in the Ranji trophy. I used to have big cheeks back then, and I got my hairs cut very short, and I have big ears,” added the Indian all-format captain.
“So, my cheeks and ears stood out and we just to have a comic in India called champak. There was a rabbit in that comic and that character’s name as Chiku. So, the coach called me Chiku because I had big ears, and that is where the nickname came from,” concluded Kohli.
Virat made his first-class debut in November 2006, featuring for Delhi against Tamil Nadu. Earlier in February that year, Kohli also made his List ‘A’ debut against Services.
