Virat Kohli is the only player in the Indian Premier League (IPL) history to play for a single franchise (Royal Challengers Bangalore) since the league started in 2008. Kohli, who also captained RCB from 2013-2021, has often said that Bangalore would be his only team in the IPL, but the star batter, in an interview with Robin Uthappa on JioCinema, has now shared that in the first few years of the league, he was in touch with another franchise in an attempted to bat in the top order.
Kohli initially batted at the No 5 or 6 positions for RCB.
While things didn’t work out at the start, Kohli added that the same franchise returned in 2011 to sign the India player but he declined the opportunity.
“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 said.
“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’,” Kohli added.
Uthappa was surprised that a franchise didn’t want to take Kohli in, to which the former India captain replied, “Yes, it was. And they denied it straight away. I was like, fair enough.”
Kohli is in good form currently after a bad IPL 2022. He has 220 runs from five matches including three fifties.
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