Two Kohli together in IPL- Virat became a star and but the other fuss, who was he?

One of the new players who shone with sensation this season is Suyash Sharma. The most talked about record of his is that of playing IPL directly without playing any kind of senior cricket match. The truth is that 19-year-old leg-spinner Suyash Sharma (Knight Riders) is not the first cricketer to achieve such a record – there are many others who did not play any first-class, List A or other T20 matches before their IPL debut. The debut season of IPL was 2008 and in the same season Taruwar Kohli, Dinesh Salunke and Siddharth Chitnis made this record. Virat Kohli also played but he had made his debut in senior cricket. So in the 2008 season, the talk of the town was not one, but two Kohlis – one Virat and the other Taruvar. 

Today the surname Kohli is special in international cricket but only because of Virat - where did Taruvar go? These two really shone together in the 2008 Under-19 World Cup - Virat's 235 and Taruvar's 218 including three consecutive 50s. One of the performances that helped India win the title was Taruvar's batting.  

Not only did Rajasthan Royals give Taruvar a contract – he was also included in the playing XI. The record remained - 10 runs in 2 innings. After that don't know what happened that his career graph kept falling down. Result- everyone slowly forgot Taruvar. In the Under-19 team, they were called TK and VK, but IPL was left only for Virat Kohli and the memory of Taruvar's name also ended. Rajasthan Royals released him only after one season. The luck was good that even then Kings XI Punjab took it and also fed it. Result – 1 run in 2 matches. That's all, Taruvar Kohli's IPL career - 11 runs in 4 matches. For a batsman with a reputation who has played in the IPL, this is the second worst record in first 4 innings.  

Taruwar didn't just disappear from the IPL - a few years later, he didn't find a place in the Punjab Ranji team either. The player had the guts, that's why he scored a triple century for Punjab and also captained the team. The BCCI's simultaneous grant of Ranji status to several former Indian teams came as a boon for players like Taruwar. He went to Mizoram after taking a transfer from Punjab. There he shone in the very first season and also scored centuries in both Vijay Hazare Trophy and Ranji Trophy. Who remembers this amazing one season? The position he would have achieved due to IPL - he never got it. After 2009, no team gave Taruvar a contract to play IPL. Virat has never scored 300 - Taruvar has scored two such scores: 300* in Punjab-Jharkhand, 2012-13 and 307* in Mizoram-Arunachal, 2019-20.  

Where did the mistake happen? Taruvar himself knows what he did wrong. He is not one to get spoiled by IPL buzz or money. In fact, in his desire to reach new heights of excellence, he became too technical to improve his cricket - in the pursuit of improving every stroke, daily net practice took a backseat and he regrets it to this day. .

Even though Virat and he played together and started playing IPL with almost equal prestige - still Virat is idol for Taruvar. His hunger for runs in every innings is an inspiration for Taruvar. In 2012-13, against Jharkhand, when he was on 130* at the end of the day's play, Virat texted him - 'Don't leave, Shera!' And inspired by this message, Taruvar made 300* the next day.  

Even when he was shining for Mizoram, Taruvar registered for the IPL auction but by then the choice of teams had changed. Sports were in the blood – father, Sushil Kohli was a professional swimmer and water polo player. Taruvar was also in the limelight for his wedding card – it was a bat ke design card. Sushil Kohli used to run a company manufacturing sports goods by the name 'Beetall'. That's why Taruvar had no problem in getting a cricket bat since childhood and got his first bat at the age of 3-4 but he could not tolerate the name of the company 'Beat All'. IPL belongs to only one 'Kohli'.