Virat Kohli remains the only cricketer who has played in 18 IPL seasons for only one franchise for his entire career. He was picked by the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) as an 18-year-old in a U19 players’ draft ahead of the IPL 2008.

And since then, he has become a bona fide legend of the franchise, captaining them to the IPL 2016 final as well. He captained the RCB franchise from 2013 to 2021, and when he stepped down from the leadership role in 2021, it was a huge blow for the franchise and its fans.

The former India captain made a startling admission in an interview posted on RCB's social media page: at one point during his career, he did think about changing teams.

Kohli discussed the challenging time in his career between 2016 and 2019 in the new RCB podcast that was released on Tuesday. The pressure to lead the Indian squad and the RCB during this period weighed heavily on him.

The Indian icon acknowledged that he had to resign as captain due to the increased demands of world cricket and the ongoing scrutiny of his play.

"I've told this before. I've had this opportunity to explore, to look elsewhere, especially in the peak years of my career. From 2016 to 2019, I had these constant suggestions to switch. At one point it did become really tough for me because there was too much happening in my career. I was captaining India for 7-8 years and was captaining RCB for 9 years. There were expectations of me from the batting perspective in every game I played.

I did not have the sense that attention was off me. I was always in the space where I didn't know 'what to do.' I was exposed to it 24×7, and it got really tough on me. I decided if I wanted to be in this place, I needed to be happy. I wanted to be in space where I could just play my cricket without being judged," he told Mayanti Langer in the RCB podcast. 

Also in 2021, Virat Kohli was removed as India’s T20I captain after the T20 World Cup debacle and from ODI captaincy as well. He quit as Test captain the next year.

Kohli also acknowledged that he had first thought about leaving RCB during these difficult years, but he said he was never "tempted" by the prospect. In the end, he valued the "valuable" relationship he had developed over the years in RCB and "mutual respect" over a new arrangement.

"I wouldn't say I was tempted, but I did think about it. I also asked myself the question, 'What is more valuable to me?'. 'I won a lot of things in my career for India. I have won a lot of accolades as well.

So, I had to take a call. 'Do I want to go into a new setup and figure out life again?'. So that is when I realized that the relationship is more valuable to me, and also the mutual respect that has been created over so many years. And now I'm just going to see it through. Whether we win or don't win, it's fine. This is my home,” Kohli said.

Virat Kohli is having an excellent IPL 2025 for RCB. He has 505 runs in 11 games with 7 fifties. His highest score is 73*, and his strike rate is 143.46.