"Bahut Tough Thaa": When 20-Year-Old Virat Kohli Played For Mohun Bagan Cricket Club At Eden Gardens

The entire Mohun Bagan cricket team was in celebratory mode having just won the P. Sen Trophy at the Eden Gardens back in 2009, barring one individual. From a distance, the architect of that crown was quietly sitting on a famous white cane chair, forever planted outside the Eden dressing room. He looked at the celebrations with utmost nonchalance.

Virat Kohli was all of 20, already an U-19 World Cup captain, touted as the next big thing in Indian cricket but a solitary half-century in five ODIs wasn't a reflection of what one was going to witness over the next decade.

As Kohli steps onto the field on his 35th birthday, against South Africa in front of a packed crowd on the same hallowed turf, there would be an overriding feeling among the handful who had watched the genius in the making 14 summers ago.

In extreme heat and humidity, Kohli had scored 184 off just 121 balls in that final match against Town Club. It was not even a decent club attack but in those challenging conditions, it was unbelievable domination from a future superstar.

"Bahut tough thaa. Lag raha tha skin phat raha hai (It was tough. The heat was unbearable)," Kohli told reporters that day apart from answering the customary questions on his possible comeback into the Indian side.

But that 'club-class' hundred was the precursor or trailer for the full-length feature film released around six months later on Christmas eve when he scored his first of his 48 ODI hundreds -- 107 vs Sri Lanka at this very ground.

It was still a chubby-cheeked Kohli, not the chiselled-jaw world-class athlete, who forged a beautiful partnership with Gautam Gambhir.

Post-match, Gambhir called up Kohli and handed his player of the match cheque to the young cricketer as a mark of