World Cup 2023 Final: Who is Paddy Upton, the coach who helped Virat Kohli regain his form?

Virat Kohli has been India’s driving force in the ongoing 2023 Cricket World Cup where the Men in Blue now face Australia in the final on Sunday. Kohli has so far smashed 711 runs, the most for a better in a single edition of the men’s ODI World Cup, at an astonishing average of 101.57. The former India captain has also managed three centuries with the last one coming in the semi-final against New Zealand which also helped him to surpass the great Sachin Tendulkar for most ODI tons with 50 centuries.

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Kohli, however, wasn’t in such a rich vein of form a while back. He had a 1021-day long century drought in international cricket which started in 2019 and only ended with an unbeaten 122 against Afghanistan in the 2022 Asia Cup. After that, the star batter went to play the famous 82 not out which helped India beat Pakistan in the group stage of the 2022 T20 World Cup. The same innings that also included the straight bat crazy six down the ground against Haris Rauf.

Kohli has now revealed that sessions with the national team’s ex-mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton helped him regain the perspective during the T20 World Cup in Australia last year.

“I had a lot of conversations with him, and I really appreciated him in that moment because he constantly kept me in check with my checkpoints of being present. Keep doing things that you did when you were playing good cricket,” Kohli told Star Sports.

“What I went through, what is the cycle of having a long career, the ups and downs because he understood from a cricketing perspective (Paddy Upton); he’s played cricket himself. And after that becoming a sports psychologist is a different kind of space,” Kohli said.

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Those who have played elite sports can explain the hardships that modern day stars face in a more relatable manner.

“If you haven’t played and you are explaining struggles and challenges, then it’s different. The one who has played knows the margins of the game, the inches and the centimeters of a run-out or a catch being taken, a great short hit, but it went to the fielder if it was a foot away, something else,” Kohli added.

Who is Paddy Upton?

Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, Upton is a mental conditioning coach who has been associated with the Indian team for a long. He was coach Gary Kirsten’s assistant during India’s 2011 World Cup campaign when Men in Blue under MS Dhoni won their second 50-over world title. He was brought back by BCCI on a short-term basis for the 2022 T20 World Cup.

The reason for coach Rahul Dravid to bring back Upton was to deal with the transition that was taking place after Kohli quit the captaincy and Rohit Sharma took over. Kohli wasn’t in good form at the start of the transition and there were questions about the equation between the two superstar players in the Indian dressing room.

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Upton has also played first-class cricket in South Africa and apart from the sport, he is also known for his love for surfing and bag-packing.

His website describes him as: “Paddy is a real, down-to-earth and practical speaker, leadership coach, mental game coach and university professor. He has a remarkable and almost unparalleled track record of experience, academic qualifications and success in coaching diverse high profile clients, both on the sports field and in the boardroom.

“Steeped in common-sense and practical wisdom, his messages inspire new thinking and far-reaching change. His work focuses on the human side of performance, helping leaders, teams and people in high-performing environments to constantly fine-tune their leadership, teamwork, culture, high-performance and/or mental game in the pursuit of healthy and sustainable success.”

The South African also recently worked with the Indian men’s hockey team which went on to win gold at the 2023 Asian Games in China.

Upton on Kohli

Upton has also reacted to Kohli revealing how the South African helped him regain his form. The 55-year-old hailed Kohli as the greatest “greatest high-pressure player”.

“It’s not often that athletes do actually take the time to acknowledge the people that have helped them to get to the top, the people in the backroom. For me, it’s been an absolute privilege as Kohli has allowed me into his life, into his head and given me the real insights to have the conversations around what it takes to be the ultimate professional and deliver the results at the highest level repeatedly,” Upton told Gulf News.

“I can say with confidence is you have the single greatest high-pressure player in the game playing the final in Virat Kohli. “