Virat Kohli recently sat down with Mayanti Langer on the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) podcast and discussed various aspects of his cricketing career. And one of the things discussed was what would have happened if RCB had still not won the Indian Premier League (IPL) title.

RCB, one of the eight original franchises, had to wait 18 years to win its first IPL title, which happened in 2025. Under Rajat Patidar’s captaincy, RCB had an amazing season in IPL 2025, and it ended with RCB defeating Punjab Kings (PBKS) in the final and becoming the IPL champions.

"I still say it's very difficult to explain to people in words how I felt in the last four balls of the last over. When you see from the outside what has happened to the franchise, how RCB has been looked at for so many years... as a big team, a big franchise that's never won—the almost champions, the ones that have come close but never really won the trophy. And for that pressure to build over so many years, like season after season...", Kohli stated on the RCB podcast.

Kohli had started with the RCB franchise in 2008 as an 18-year-old and remains the only cricketer to play for 19 years in the IPL for the same franchise. He also captained the RCB from IPL 2013 to 2021, leading them to the final of the 2016 edition, where they lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad.

After Kohli and RCB won the IPL 2025, the franchise management and players celebrated with ex-RCB players Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers among them, enjoying the success that eluded them when they were part of the team.

"AB became this icon in India after he started playing for us. How the fans embraced him, how they loved him. What he did for the team was beyond words; the impact he had..." Kohli said.

He is realistic about what may have happened; he doesn't overstate it or claim that it would have broken him. However, he provided a glimpse of what it may have been like to end up without an IPL title with RCB.

"Although I wouldn't have carried on regretting it. But there would have been a part of me that would have wondered, you know, what it would have felt like to experience that moment,” Kohli said.

And about the timing of it, after everything, he has no doubt at all.

"I can for sure, with absolute honesty and clarity, say that it wouldn't have been 5% of the feeling I had had we won it in the earlier years, and the accumulation of all that stress and all that pressure. And for it to happen after 18 years, there couldn't have been a better experience for me in my cricketing journey,” he concluded.