Virat Kohli has been part of Royal Challengers Bangalore since the IPL 2008.
Former Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) captain Virat Kohli has revealed his wife Anushka Sharma's connection with Bengaluru. Kohli said Anushka feels very happy that he plays for a Bengaluru-based franchise in IPL.
Kohli has been part of RCB since the inaugural season of IPL and he has never played for any other franchise. The Delhi-born is now loved by the locals in Bengaluru for their over a decade-old relationship.
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In RCB Podcast, the 33-year-old explained the connection of Anushka with the city and said, "She's a Bangalore girl. She's grown up there. She's spent way more time than I have in Bangalore, not many people know this. And she has a special connection with the city already. So obviously she feels very happy that I am playing for RCB and my commitment is always going to be for this franchise and for this city.
"She obviously can feel the sadness when we don't do well as well. And as I said, there's a special connection with Bangalore already so for her it was just things coming together in the most perfect manner that I happened to play in the city and she gets to go back to Bangalore and relive her special memories of growing up there. And she absolutely loves it."
The Indian cricketer has been visiting the city regularly before bursting onto the scene as the National Cricket Academy (NCA) used to have camps for Under-14 and Under-15 teams.
"It's always had a strong impact on my life starting from the time we used to come to Bangalore for the Under-14, Under-15 NCA camps and we used to be there for 2-2.5 months at one stretch so we used to explore quite a bit of Bangalore even then.
"The city has a very different feel to any other place in India. It is just when you arrive, you land at the airport and you are driving to the hotel, you just feel like you've come home. That's a very difficult feeling to get in a city that you haven't been born and grown up in and you just go there for a period in the year."
Last year, after announcing that he will quit captaincy, Kohli assured fans that his last IPL game is going to be in RCB jersey; hinting that he will always be with the franchise.
(With Inputs from RCB Podcast)