{"id":445583,"date":"2026-01-29T17:31:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T17:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/445583\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T17:31:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T17:31:13","slug":"mujhe-virat-kohli-jaisa-banna-hai-meet-vihaan-malhotra-academic-ace-crisis-man-and-future-kohli-teammate-exclusive-cricket-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/445583\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Mujhe Virat Kohli jaisa banna hai\u2019: Meet Vihaan Malhotra \u2014 academic ace, crisis man and future Kohli teammate | EXCLUSIVE | Cricket News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\u2018MujheVihaan Malhotra (ICC Photo) NEW DELHI: \u201cMujhe Virat Kohli<\/a> jaisa banna hai. Main unke saath khelna chahta hoon [I want to become like Virat Kohli and want to play with him],\u201d a nine-year-old Vihaan Malhotra told his coach Kamal Sandhu when he joined his Cricket Hub Academy in Patiala. Back then, the kid had no idea that his words, desire and dream would one day turn into reality. Now 19, Vihaan \u2014 who has been making a name for himself in the ongoing Under-19 World Cup in Zimbabwe \u2014 is set to play for Royal Challengers Bengaluru. He will be sharing the dressing room, dugout, ground and crease with Kohli in IPL 2026. Vihaan was bought for Rs 30 lakh at the IPL 2026 auction.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!<\/a>\u201cKya pata tha woh bolega yeh aur yeh ek din sach ho jaayega. I am really happy for him. Virat ki videos dekhta tha \u2014 uske shots, especially cover drive, isko achhe lagte the. He is also a fitness freak. He always admired Virat and tried to take everything from that legend\u2019s book. <\/p>\n

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\u201cPlaying at RCB will give him a lot of learnings. He is happy \u2014 really happy,\u201d the coach said.Vihaan is India\u2019s only centurion in the ongoing ICC Under-19 World Cup. His unbeaten hundred powered India to a comprehensive win over Zimbabwe in their first Super Sixes match of the 2026 Under-19 World Cup in Bulawayo. India set Zimbabwe a daunting target of 353 before skittling them out for 148 in just 37.4 overs.Vihaan leapt into the air, removed his helmet, stretched out his arms and celebrated the century in style. The celebration said it all \u2014 a clear message: \u201cI can do anything.\u201dThe 19-year-old hasn\u2019t taken long to adopt that mindset in his career. Once an opener, he is now ready to bat at any position, can bowl and pick up wickets, tighten the noose around batters with his spin, and is an acrobat in the field.Before his century against Zimbabwe, Vihaan also claimed four wickets and pulled off two breathtaking catches against Bangladesh.\u201cHamesha kehta hai, \u2018Sir, main kuch bhi kar lunga,\u2019 jab Under-19 World Cup ke liye ja raha tha. He has prepared himself like that. All I told him in the beginning was that if you have to stay in the team for long, then you need to be an all-dimensional player. You should know bowling too, and your fielding has to be brilliant,\u201d the coach said.\u201cHe is a proper batter, but he has worked a lot on his bowling too. After batting for four-five hours, he shifts towards bowling and bowls almost seven-eight overs every day at the nets. With time, he has become a good spinner too. And then he signs off his practice session with some fielding drills and watching some of Virat\u2019s videos,\u201d Sandhu, who also trained the likes of Prabhsimran Singh, Anmolpreet Singh and Naman Dhir, said. \"Kamal<\/p>\n

Vihaan with Kamal Sandhu (Image credit: Special arrangement)<\/p>\n

Vihaan also trained under Ravneet Ricky, a member of India\u2019s triumphant squad at the Under-19 World Cup in 2000 under Mohammad Kaif\u2019s captaincy.Ricky, who began coaching Vihaan in 2022, describes him as the team\u2019s crisis man.\u201cHe actually came to me in 2022, when I was the head coach of the Under-16 Punjab team. He was an opener. He has given up that position and made himself an \u2018any position\u2019 player. You send him in at any position or situation \u2014 he will deliver. He always wanted to be an opener, and when the management told him to play in the middle order, he didn\u2019t say anything, accepted it very gracefully, and performed,\u201d Ricky said.\u201cI am really happy for him that he is going to share the dressing room with a legend like Virat Kohli this year at RCB. After the IPL, a more refined Vihaan will come through. He will have a different approach and mindset after talking to and spending time with Virat. Virat and I have played together a couple of times,\u201d Ricky added.The year 2025 proved impressive for Vihaan. He amassed 277 runs in two Youth Tests, including a knock of 120, and followed it up with 243 runs in five Youth ODIs, highlighted by a century in the fourth match. \"Vihaan<\/p>\n

Vihaan with Ravneet Ricky (Image credit: Special arrangement)<\/p>\n

FAMILY OF DOCTOR AND ENGINEERJust like every family of doctors and engineers wants their child to follow a similar profession, Vihaan too was nudged in that direction.His father Manoj Malhotra, an engineer, and mother Poonam Malhotra, a doctor, took their son to Sandhu to play cricket as a hobby, unaware that the boy had already decided his career long ago.For coach Sandhu, Vihaan was destined to become a cricketer \u2014 even though he first came to pursue the sport as a hobby. \"Vihaan<\/p>\n

Vihan Malhotra during the U19 World Cup (ICC Photo)<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a very interesting story. They said, \u2018Coach saab, aap please cricket khilao. Mobile phones se door rahega khaali time mein.\u2019 He was excellent in academics too \u2014 almost 95 percent in his schooling. He is a dynamic kid, but he kept cricket at the top. I told his parents the kid is talented and to let him play,\u201d Sandhu said.\u201cThe moment he crossed 15, his mental strength was something to see. He used to give a lot of time to cricket. With time, he started giving all his time to cricket. I have seen him practising alone too. Coming in the morning around 11 and going back at night at 9 or 10 became his routine,\u201d the coach said.\u201cThere are a lot of plans for IPL preparation. Let him come back \u2014 we will start those drills too,\u201d the coach signed off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vihaan Malhotra (ICC Photo) NEW DELHI: \u201cMujhe Virat Kohli jaisa banna hai. Main unke saath khelna chahta hoon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,231104,31775,231105,231107,231106,72835,85,220136,77914,2131],"class_list":{"0":"post-445583","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cricket","11":"tag-cricket-hub-academy","12":"tag-ipl-2026","13":"tag-kamal-sandhu","14":"tag-prabhsimran-singh","15":"tag-ravneet-ricky","16":"tag-royal-challengers-bengaluru","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-under-19-world-cup","19":"tag-vihaan-malhotra","20":"tag-virat-kohli"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}