The Indian cricketer Virat Kohli is the only cricket player who has played for only one franchise in the IPL since its inception in the year 2008. It won’t be wrong to say that Virat Kohli and Royal Challengers Bangalore are synonymous with each other and the former Indian skipper has also made it clear that he won’t be playing for any other franchise in the IPL when he gave up the captaincy of RCB.
Virat Kohli has also led the team from 2013-2021, though RCB hasn’t won even a single IPL title over these years yet no one can deny that he has certainly played many match-winning knocks for the team. While in today’s scenario, Virat Kohli can’t think of playing for any other franchise but in the initials years, there was a time when he was thinking of changing the franchise.
He has always liked to play at the top-order especially at number 3 but for the first three seasons, Virat Kohli batted at the 5th or 6th number and he was not happy with it.
Recently during an interaction with former Indian cricketer Robin Uthappa, Virat Kohli talked about his association with RCB and called it amazing. He says that he values this relationship a lot because the franchise supported him pretty well in the first three years. Kohli further said that even when the retentions took place, the franchise not only retained him but also acted in positive to the feedback given to him. Virat Kohli added that the only thing which he said to Ray Jennings in feedback was that he wanted to bat at number 3 and they agreed to it. The Delhi batter stated that the franchise showed faith in him when he needed it the most as he was in growing phase at the international level as well.
Virat Kohli didn’t name the franchise but revealed that he spoke to a franchise and asked them for an opportunity to play at the top-order but the franchise wasn’t even interested in listening to him. Kohli further said that in 2011 when he was playing for India and was performing well, the same franchise contacted him and asked him to come in the auctions but at that time, Virat refused them straightaway and said that he would always be with the franchise which supported him.
Now that’s an interesting revelation!