By Rishab Vm

Copyright sportskeeda

Former Mumbai Indians (MI) star Unmukt Chand opened up on comparisons with Virat Kohli. During his appearance on ‘The Raunac Podcast’, he revealed that the comparison was like a motivation to him.Unmukt spoke about having seen Virat Kohli grow while he played domestic cricket alongside him for Delhi. He had shared the dressing room with Kohli even before winning the 2012 U-19 World Cup in the Ranji Trophy and other domestic tournaments.”I saw Virat growing in front of me. Four years back he had won the World Cup. When I was playing Ranji Trophy before the World Cup itself I was sharing the dressing room with him. So it was an inspiration to me. When people compare you to him, I have to step up to fill those shoes and come to that level. I always look at it like that,” he said. (4:44)The former MI star added that he played with Kohli during his first appearance for Delhi during the 2009 Vijay Hazare Trophy. He also recalled having had many conversations while also batting alongside him in domestic cricket.”My first season for Delhi was in the Vijay Hazare Trophy in 2009. Virat was in the team and I spoke a lot with him at that time. He was there in my Ranji Trophy debut as well. I used to talk a lot to him. I would open with Shikhar and one own was Virat so I have batted quite a bit with him too.”After having led India to victory at the 2012 U-19 World Cup, Unmukt was deemed the next big thing in Indian cricket. It was then that he was compared to Kohli as well, who had led India to victory at the 2008 U-19 World Cup.Former MI batter opens up on his viral Pepsi advertisementPost the 2012 U-19 World Cup win, Unmukt Chand was part of a viral Pepsi advertisement that also had big names like MS Dhoni and Kohli in it. The former MI batter revealed that the shoot had taken place after a domestic match between Delhi and Uttar Pradesh (UP) in Ghaziabad.He expressed that it was a special experience for him to have shot with big names as a youngster. Unmukt added that people still remembered the advertisement and called it an epic one.”That ad shoot happened after the World Cup. It was a Pepsi Ad. There was a match between Delhi and UP in Ghaziabad. From UP also Suresh Raina, Bhuvi, Praveen Kumar, all these guys were there. From Delhi Gautam, myself, Virat all were there. Our shoot was the next day after the game. I had no idea all of them would come for that shoot as well,” he said. (54:28) (via the aforementioned source)”A very good and different experience for me personally. I had a lot of fun. For a youngster, shooting with such big names that too in an Ad that was tilted more towards me, what more can you ask for? It was very special and people still remember it. It was one of those epic Ads,” he added.Unmukt was a part of MI for two seasons in 2015 and 2016. In 2015, he scored 102 runs from five innings at an average of 20.40 with a half-century. The next season, he played just one game and did not score a single run. It proved to be his last IPL game and season as well. He has not featured in the league ever since.While he had a poor IPL career, the only highlight was winning the trophy with MI in 2015.