Ex-South Africa cricketer AB de Villiers said he found India batter, Virat Kohli, a 'cocky' youngster in his first impression. De Villiers and Kohli have built a strong friendship after playing together for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in IPL over the years.
RCB bought De Villiers in the IPL 2011 auction for $1.1 million after Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals) had released him. He never left the franchise after that and played till the last season, before announcing his retirement.
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"We ran into each other few times before we properly met. I knew about him, he knew about me. I said it a few times that I thought he was a bit cocky when he was a youngster, so that was my initial impression. Even though I could see that he has got respect and the basics are in place, I felt like he has got a bit of swagger going in.
"So, I didn't hold it against him because you need it at that point of age. We had a really short discussion, I didn't give him any compliments or anything like that. But, I remember clearly at Wanderers when I got picked up by RCB, and it was a nice discussion of looking forward to play together," he said on the RCB podcast.
De Villiers further spoke on their connection which got better with time while playing for RCB. "Once I got to Bangalore, we sort of the connection just kicked off straight away. Our proper friendship started when I started playing for RCB in 2011. That's probably when we started becoming good friends.
"I am kind of a guy where I don't really keep in touch but for some reason with Virat it just happens, so we stay in touch. It's easy as he is on telly (Television) the whole time when I am at home," he added.
The 37-year-old finds a lot of things common between him and Kohli, starting from their approach towards the game of cricket. "We both have a lot of basics in common. The way we play the game is quite similar. He is a fighter and I sort of relate to the way he plays the game and another fighter in the team, would have great," he said.
(With ANI Inputs)
