Virat Kohli has been by far the fittest Indian cricketer, as evidenced by a BCCI report that revealed that at least 23 centrally-contracted Indian cricketers, excluding the former skipper, required a visit to NCA for rehabilitation in the 2021-22 season due to some or other injury. The BCCI CEO Hemang Amin's report details the work done at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) and during the previous season.

 According to the report, "the NCA medical team treated 96 complex injuries to 70 players during this period."

There were 23 players from the senior India team, 25 from the India A/Targeted team, one from the India U-19 team, seven from the senior Women's team, and 14 from the states.

 The 23 centrally contracted players included skipper Rohit Sharma (hamstring), his deputy KL Rahul (post hernia surgery), Cheteshwar Pujara, Shikhar Dhawan, Hardik Pandya, Umesh Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Rishabh Pant, Ishant Sharma, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Mayank Agarwal, Yuzvendra Chahal, Washington Sundar.

According to an insider, Kohli has never needed to visit Bengaluru's Centre of Excellence for injury or fitness issues in the last year.

 "To be fair, many of these injuries occurred on the field. Some people had bad luck with fractures (Surya). Some people had multiple problems at the same time.

 "But you have to give it to Kohli's fitness that he has managed himself so well that he never had any hamstring or muscle related injuries," a BCCI source said.

 To provide some context, the players who needed rehab were all 10 years younger than Kohli and had been sidelined for extended periods due to various types of injuries.

Shubman Gill, Prithvi Shaw, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Venkatesh Iyer, KS Bharat, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, Karthik Tyagi, Navdeep Saini, and Rahul Chahar were among those named.

 Kohli suffered a back injury (herniated disc) in 2018, which prevented him from playing County cricket for Surrey, but he has recovered well and remains the fittest senior Indian player on the field.