'He leads by example': Krunal Pandya opens up on Virat Kohli's work ethic and hunger for winning

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'He leads by example': Krunal Pandya opens up on Virat Kohli's work ethic and hunger for winning originally appeared on Cricket News. Add Cricket News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Krunal Pandya says Virat Kohli's hunger to win is "quite inspiring for everyone" inside and outside the dressing room.
• Pandya recalled Kohli bouncing back from two consecutive ducks to score a match-winning hundred in the next game.
• Krunal had his own defining IPL 2026 campaign, scoring 73 off 46 balls vs MI while battling stomach cramps as RCB retained the title

Krunal Pandya opens up on Virat Kohli's work ethic and hunger for winning​

Royal Challengers Bengaluru's back-to-back IPL victories have cemented Virat Kohli's place as one of franchise cricket's all-time greats, but for Krunal Pandya, sharing a dressing room with him in IPL 2026 offered a more personal insight into what separates the 37-year-old from everyone else.

Asked by the Times of India whether Kohli motivates his teammates and speaks about fitness, Krunal did not pause to construct an elaborate answer. The question almost answers itself, he suggested, once you have seen how Kohli operates at training and in the middle.

"He leads by example, right," Pandya said, adding that the hunger Kohli still has to go out and win is "quite inspiring for everyone." That hunger, in Krunal's view, flows from a love for the game that has never faded.

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What Virat Kohli's hunger for success looks like up close​

Krunal used a specific moment from IPL 2026 to illustrate his point. Around the 11-game mark of the season, Kohli had scored consecutive ducks, and the RCB camp was being asked whether something was wrong. Pandya's instinct was the opposite of concern.

"I'm like, I'm excited, right?" Krunal told TOI. "He has had two back-to-back zeros, and then he goes in the third game and he scores a match-winning 100."

The reaction of someone who has absorbed, rather than merely observed, what Kohli is. Pandya added that getting satisfied with one or two victories is natural for most people.

Watching someone who has made a habit of performing at the highest level serves as a daily reminder of what sustained excellence requires and how much it continuously demands.

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The wider lesson of Virat Kohli's presence​

Speaking on JioStar's Superstars, Pandya said Kohli's hunger remained "unbelievable" and that "those eyes don't lie."

He noted the same intensity arrives at every net session and that regardless of which era Kohli had played in, he would still be one of the greatest.

It is high praise from a teammate who has also played alongside Kohli for India, giving his perspective extra weight.

The admiration is not shaped by proximity alone but by experience of different competitive environments across many years of cricket together.

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Krunal Pandya's own defining moments in IPL 2026​

Pandya's appreciation of Kohli is not passive. His own IPL 2026 campaign demanded exactly the kind of character he admires.

Battling severe stomach cramps against Mumbai Indians on May 10, Krunal produced 73 off 46 balls, pushing RCB to the top of the points table.

When Kohli finished IPL 2026 as RCB's highest scorer with 675 runs and Krunal completed 100 IPL wickets across the campaign, both men had written defining chapters in the title defence. The hunger Pandya described was exactly what showed up when it mattered.

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