Virat Kohli is the only player in the history of the Indian Premier League (IPL) who played for the same franchise since its inception. Kohli also led the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) for nine seasons till 2021 and while the team didn’t win any title under his leadership, Virat Kohli played some magical knocks for the franchise. While talking to JioCinema, Kohli recalled being rejected by another IPL franchise, who approached him later.
Kohli has revealed that during some initial seasons of the IPL, he was batting at the fifth or sixth spot and wanted to play up on the batting order. He approached another franchise with the proposal, however, the franchise denied giving a top-order spot to the batsman.
Later, in 2011 the franchise returned to Virat Kohli ahead of the retentions, but by then Kohli has made some a name for himself in the Indian team, so he turned down the offer and chose to remain with RCB.
“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 told Robin Uthappa during an interview for JioCinema.
“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 further said.
In 2021, Virat Kohli stepped down from the role of the captain for RCB. Despite having a disappointing season in the following year, he managed to make a remarkable comeback in all formats of the game in 2022. In the current season, Kohli has played five matches for RCB and has scored two half-centuries.
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