During a home T20I series against South Africa, a young youngster from Assam went above and beyond to see his idol, Virat Kohli. Rahul Rai of Guwahati's Shantipur has admired the former India skipper since the great hitter burst onto the scene and dominated the batting rankings.
Rahul Rai mustered the bravery to give it a real attempt after years of longing to meet his idol, knowing that Virat Kohli and the rest of the Indian squad will be in Guwahati for the T20I match against South Africa. Before coming to Guwahati on September 30, India and South Africa played the first T20I in Thiruvananthapuram.
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Rahul Rai started from the beginning, as he was at the Lokopirya Gopinath Bordoloi Airport in Borjhar attempting to communicate with Virat Kohli, but his efforts were futile.
The young guy also arrived at the Barsapara Stadium, the site of the second T20I, during the previous two days to see Kohli during India's training sessions, but due to security concerns for India cricketers, Rahul had to wait longer.
Finally, the young man decided to remain at India's team hotel and try again to meet his hero. And he was successful. Despite having to pay Rs 23,000 for a hotel room, Rahul Rai was able to meet and converse with Kohli.
Rahul Rai eventually met Virat Kohli at the team hotel in Guwahati, near the breakfast area. He even took a selfie with the Indian batsman. Rahul also received Kohli's autograph on a framed collage of the Royal Challengers Bangalore star's Instagram fan page.
"At one point he noticed me and asked me to meet him outside the breakfast area. I presented a framed collage of the Fan Page on Instagram that I created in his name and have one lakh followers. He said he cannot carry it back and autographed it for me to keep as a sweet souvenir of this meeting. We clicked a selfie” Rahul Rai said, as quoted by News 18.
Virat Kohli not only brightened Rahul's day, but the day of his whole fan base, as he scored a 28-ball 49 not out against South Africa in the second of a three-match T20I series in Guwahati on Sunday. On Sunday, Kohli became the first Indian player to score 11,000 T20 runs.
India put on a strong batting display in front of a full audience at the Barsapara Stadium, scoring 237 for 3 in 20 overs, their fourth-highest score in the game's shortest format.
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