Delhi: In the first 18 IPL matches played till April 7 of the current season, only two players named Kohli have played in the IPL. Everyone knows one of them, Virat Kohli, but who is the other ‘Kohli’? Believe me, at one time this second Kohli was considered to have talent equal to Virat. Many experts had said that this player will go far. Similarly, the same two Kohlis have played for India in the Under-19 World Cup also.

The current reality is that no one even remembers the name of this second Kohli. This was Taruvar Kohli.

In the same 2008 Under-19 World Cup, when the title was won under the captaincy of Virat Kohli, Taruvar Kohli was also in the team. Scored 218 runs in 6 matches. Scored three consecutive 50s in this. After that he was never able to maintain this level and his cricket career remained ordinary.

Taruvar Kohli also played IPL (for two teams Punjab Kings and Rajasthan Royals) but scored only 11 runs in 4 innings in a total of 4 matches and the top score in this too is 7 runs.

That is why his story is one of those players who did not take their junior cricket talent very far and remained in anonymity. Even his cricket career lasted till 2023 only when the BCCI allowed the eastern states of India to take players from outside and Taruwar then played for Mizoram.

In March 2008, the BCCI had organized a function at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in honor of the Indian team winning the Under-19 World Cup under the captaincy of Virat Kohli and there, the then coach of the Under-19 team, Rahul Dravid, gave his example to the young players of the team and said, ‘I played for the Under-19 team in 1991 and I was the only player in my team who went on to play for India.’ Taruwar Kohli’s name is also among those on whom this statement of Rahul Dravid proved to be true.

Taruvar Kohli was a right-handed batsman and fast bowler. He also made two scores of 300 in first class cricket and one of these was in the Ranji Trophy semi-final match against Jharkhand in the 2012-13 season. In the glow of that 2008 Under-19 team’s World Cup win, Taruwar was picked up by Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2008 but was dropped after a single season.

In the second season, Yuvraj Singh’s Kings XI Punjab team took over.

However, the lifeline for his cricket career was the opportunity to play for Mizoram and on the other hand, Taruwar gave a right structure to cricket in this state with his experience. When Taruwar’s opportunities to play in the Punjab team started decreasing after the emergence of players like Abhishek Sharma and Shubhman Gill, his career went ahead only after going to Mizoram. In England, he has also played for Cawthorn Cricket Club in the South Premier Yorkshire League. Now he also runs ‘Powerplay Cricket Academy’ for young cricketers in Mizoram, where young talents are nurtured.

When he started his YouTube channel, he named it ‘Find A Way’ and he says that this name is the gift of Shane Warne who, while captaining Rajasthan Royals, whenever he faced any difficulty in the dressing room or team meeting, he would often say, ‘Find a way’ and Taruvar also found a way.

Among the special things that Taruwar remembers from his IPL days, the top one is watching Sachin Tendulkar clean his bat, his pads, everything himself. The lesson learned from this is that whatever work you do, you have to take care of it yourself. Apart from this, when the situation becomes difficult then one remembers Warne’s policy that when one cannot understand something then there is only one way, attack. Be it bowling or batting, taking wickets or scoring runs on the bowler’s balls, whatever the ability, one should aim to perform beyond one’s full potential and they do the same in business too. He runs a brand named ‘Versant Sports’, in which batting gloves are designed in collaboration with Shubman Gill.