{"id":402310,"date":"2026-02-01T13:12:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T13:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/402310\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T13:12:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T13:12:16","slug":"ipl-wicket-li-toh-paer-chhu-lunga-punjab-kings-mystery-spinner-shares-his-virat-kohli-dream-cricket-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/402310\/","title":{"rendered":"IPL: &#8216;Wicket li toh pa&#8217;er chhu lunga&#8217; &#8211; Punjab Kings&#8217; mystery spinner shares his Virat Kohli dream | Cricket News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/lkj-25.jpg\" alt=\"IPL: 'Wicket li toh pa'er chhu lunga' - Punjab Kings' mystery spinner shares his Virat Kohli dream\" title=\"Virat Kohli (Photo\/AP)\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/> Punjab Kings\u2019 new signing Vishal Nishad has spoken about the role <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/virat-kohli\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Virat Kohli<\/a> played in shaping his cricket journey and said he would show respect to his idol if he ever gets him out in a match.Nishad said Kohli was the reason he took up the sport and remains his biggest influence. &#8220;My idol is Virat Kohli. I am inspired by his attitude and his drive; he&#8217;s my favourite,&#8221; Nishad said. <\/p>\n<p>T20 World Cup | Finn Allen eager to make the most out of India&#8217;s smaller boundaries and flat wickets<\/p>\n<p> Asked how he would react if he managed to dismiss Kohli, the right-arm spin bowler said, &#8220;If I take his wicket, I&#8217;ll touch his feet because he&#8217;s my idol.&#8221;Nishad\u2019s journey to the IPL has not been easy. He spoke about the difficulties his family faced and the moments when he thought about giving up cricket. &#8220;There were tough times. I used to go with my father and help him [with work]. I even thought I\u2019d quit cricket,&#8221; he recalled.He said his family initially had doubts about his future in the game. &#8220;My mother told me to leave it and learn something else because becoming a cricketer is so difficult. But I didn&#8217;t give up. I told her, \u2018Mom, I will definitely do it.\u2019 Once they saw my resolve, my family stood behind me.&#8221;Nishad began his cricketing journey playing tennis-ball matches before moving to leather-ball cricket. He said the shift happened after encouragement from a friend. &#8220;Initially, I played tennis-ball cricket. A friend watched me throw and suggested to try the leather ball because he liked my action. After that, I decided to practice seriously. That&#8217;s how it all started,&#8221; he said.He also credited his coach and local cricket for helping him progress. &#8220;My coach didn\u2019t charge me fees for three years. Eventually, I played in a local T20 tournament in Uttar Pradesh and performed well. After two years of playing in the tournament, I landed up here (with Punjab Kings).&#8221;Explaining how he became a bowler, Nishad said his early days with the tennis ball helped him develop key skills. &#8220;As I was practicing with the tennis ball initially, I got used to making it spin. I adapted my tennis-ball skills to the leather ball, which played a major role in me becoming a bowler.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Punjab Kings\u2019 new signing Vishal Nishad has spoken about the role Virat Kohli played in shaping his cricket&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402311,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,150326,138755,150329,150327,150328,57487,101,56,54,55,15624,150325],"class_list":["post-402310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-cricket","tag-cricket-idol","tag-cricket-journey","tag-cricket-perseverance","tag-ipl-2023","tag-paer-chhu-lunga","tag-punjab-kings","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-virat-kohli","tag-vishal-nishad"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}