Virat Kohli once did not make the squad of a Delhi junior team as his father refused to pay a bribe to an official. Talking on Instagram live with Sunil Chhetri, King Kohli said, "In my home state sometimes things happen are not fair, on one occasion, a certain someone did not play by the rules when it came to a selection criteria. He told my father while I had the merit, a little extra, i.e. bribe was needed to confirm my selection." Kohli reminisced that how his father was an honest, hard-working middle-class man and that he did not understand what "a little extra" meant. Kohli stated, "My father replied to that official by simply saying if you want to select Virat, let it be purely on merit. I will not give you anything extra. Hence, I didn't get selected and I cried a lot. I was broken."

Kohli further added, "That incident taught me a lot. I realized that this world runs like this. If you want to progress, do something that no one else is doing. I realized that I had to be extraordinary to become successful and that I had to achieve this purely through my own effort and hard work. My father showed me the right way, through action and not merely words. Those little things had a huge impact on me." 

Kohli aged 18, was playing for Delhi against Karnataka in the Ranji trophy match when in the night his father breathed his last. Young Kohli played a valuable knock the next morning and saved Delhi from a defeat.

The Indian skipper went on to describe how his father's death gave him more motivation and boosted him to achieve his dream of playing cricket for India.