India batter Virat Kohli has been associated with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) ever since the inaugural Indian Premier League (IPL) season in 2008. He is the only player to play all the seasons for one franchise.
Kohli has also led RCB, although they failed to clinch the IPL title despite being favorites in multiple seasons. Currently, he is not the RCB captain, after quitting the role at the conclusion of 2021 season.
Speaking to Robin Uthappa on JioCinema, Virat has now revealed that in the first few years of the league, he was in touch with another franchise in order to bat at the top.
Notably, Kohli batted at the No. 5 or 6 for RCB in the first few seasons. While things didn’t work out at the start, the star batter added that the same franchise returned in 2011 to sign him but he declined the offer.
“It’s been amazing. Why I value this partnership and journey with RCB so much, is because in the first 3 years of the IPL, they backed me a lot. Even when the retentions happened, they said, ‘we want to retain you’. My only feedback to Ray Jennings at the time was ‘I want to bat in top-order. I bat at 3 for India, and I want to bat at 3’. And they said, ‘okay, you will bat at 3’. They showed faith in me at the time when I needed it. I was growing in my international career as well,” Kohli stated.
“That is of more value for me. I won’t take names but another franchise who I spoke to at the time… they were not even keen enough to listen to me. I was playing lower down the order at the time (5-6). I was like, ‘if I could get the opportunity to bat in the top of the order somewhere else…’ The same franchise, because I had played for India and performed in 2011, before the retention, came to me and said, ‘can you please come to the auction?’ I said, ‘no chance. I will always be with the franchise that backs me’,” he added.
Uthappa also expressed surprise that a franchise didn’t want to take Kohli in. To which, the former RCB skipper replied, “Yes, it was. And they denied it straight away. I was like, fair enough.”
Virat Kohli is currently featuring in the IPL for RCB. In five matches so far, he has registered scores of 82*, 21, 61, 50 and 6.
