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Khaleej Times
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Khaleej Times
Virat Kohli and Bengaluru, a love story cricket fans will never forget
When Virat Kohli first played for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (it was known as Bangalore at the time) in April 2008, the world was a very different place. Back then, George W Bush was the American president, Osama bin Laden was the most wanted fugitive, Lionel Messi had yet to win his first Ballon d'Or and Burj Khalifa was still under construction. But in these 17 long years, two things never changed — RCB fans never turned their back on the team, even when they hit rock bottom in the IPL and Kohli never stopped giving 'every ounce of my energy' to lift their spirits. Kohli was an energetic 18-year-old when he made his RCB debut in 2008. Fresh from leading India to the 2008 Under 19 World Cup triumph, the Delhi boy was tipped to be India's next big star who had yet to make his debut for the senior national team. Seventeen years later, Kohli retired from two formats of the game at international level, having attained a near-mythic status in a cricket-obsessed country on the back of his match-winning epics. But in those 17 years, Kohli only suffered heartbreaks with the RCB. They came tantalizingly close to winning on three occasions — 2009, 2011 and 2016 — only to lose all three finals. Perhaps, the most gut-wrenching defeat came in 2016 when Kohli almost singlehandedly dragged the team to the final, scoring over 900 runs with four centuries in what was a truly astonishing display of batsmanship. But the final defeat to the Sunrisers Hyderabad was a bitter pill to swallow. Now at 36, Kohli is a shadow of the player he was at his peak, especially during a stunning four-year stretch from 2016 and 2019 when his bat seemed like a wand, conjuring a myriad magical of knocks for India and the RCB across formats. But runs were hard to come by when Kohli walked out to bat in the final against Punjab Kings on Tuesday. The former India captain was in decent form going into the big game at the world's biggest cricket stadium, having amassed more than 600 runs in the season. But it was the weight of expectations that weighed on him as he launched his latest bid for the only white-ball trophy still missing from his cabinet. As Kohli was dismissed following a laboured 43 off 35 balls, it seemed the writing was on the wall after the RCB put up a below-par 190 for nine. Fortunately for the team and the army of fans, their bowlers, especially Krunal Pandya, rose to the challenge, neutralising the threat posed by Punjab batters to end the 18-year wait for that elusive trophy. No wonder Kohli dropped to his knees and cried tears of joy after the RCB finally joined the league of champions. 'This win is as much for the fans as it is for the team. It's been 18 long years. I've given this team my youth, prime and experience. I've tried to win it every season, gave it everything I have. To finally have it is an unbelievable feeling,' he said. 'Never thought this day would come, I was overcome with emotion after the last ball was bowled. Gave each and every ounce of my energy and it's an amazing feeling.' It was only natural for the RCB talisman to run the gamut of emotions on Tuesday night. Here's a man who could have left the team and joined the Chennai Super Kings or the Mumbai Indians in search of the trophy. But the deep connection he shared with the passionate RCB fans never allowed him to abandon the ship. 'I've stayed loyal to this team, no matter what. I've had moments where I thought otherwise, but I stuck to this team. I stood behind them, they stood behind me. And I always dreamt of winning it with them. And this is far more special than winning it with anyone else because my heart is with Bangalore, my soul is with Bangalore,' he said. Finally, Kohli, the only player to have represented the same IPL team since the start of the tournament in 2008, revealed that he could follow in the footsteps of Paolo Maldini (AC Milan), Francesco Totti (AS Roma), Ryan Giggs (Manchester United) and Lev Yashin (Dynamo Moscow) — the legendary one-club footballers. 'This is the team (RCB) I'm going to play for till the last day that I play the IPL,' he said. 'I'm someone that wants to win the big tournaments, the big moments, and this one was missing. And tonight, I'm going to sleep like a baby.' To put things in perspective, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, the teen sensation who became the youngest IPL centurion this season, was not even born when Kohli played his first match for RCB in 2008. Cricket has indeed produced some fascinating stories over the years, but Kohli's bond with Bengaluru is the one which will resonate forever in every fan's heart.
BBC News
12-05-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Growing up alongside Kohli - why India legend was special on and off field
The thought of watching an India Test team without Virat Kohli in it will take some getting used to.I first played a full international against Kohli in an ODI at Lord's in 2011, then in Test cricket in India the following year, when England famously won the series my first encounter with him came some time before, in an Under-19 series in the UK in 2006. We played three four-day 'Test' matches, with some recognisable names on both teams: Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid, Adam Lyth and Ishant Sharma. Kohli and I were both 17, so playing a couple of years above our age then, as a youngster a far cry from the supreme athlete he turned into, the competitiveness and fire that has characterised Kohli's career shone the first game at Canterbury he made 123 in the first innings. It was full of trademark Kohli shots: clips through mid-wicket and punches through the covers with a checked I remember most vividly is how keen he was to engage in a battle with us. In age-group cricket, some players are there to score their runs so they progress through the system. Not Kohli. He was there to win. It was this trait that elevated him above his peers and served him so well throughout a Test career that has carried the hopes of 1.4bn then on, we crossed paths regularly. At the 2008 Under-19 World Cup in Malaysia, we even crossed paths on a nightclub dancefloor. These days he would have too much of an image to uphold, and too much security required, to be seen in the same dodgy establishments as yours captained the India team that won that tournament. His expression on lifting the trophy, screaming in delight, was one that became familiar when he celebrated an India wicket in a at that age he was the prized wicket in the India team, the one you'd phone home to tell your parents about. It was no surprise he made his full one-day international debut later that year, immediately looking at began his Test career as the golden boy, the next superstar and the face of India's new generation. He turned himself into a ruthless run machine and the most feared player in the world. Bowling to Kohli was tough. You never wanted to engage him too much, because you knew that it would bring out the best in him. At the same time, you never wanted to back down so much that he didn't respect you bowled too full, he could punish you on both sides of the wicket. Drop short and he played off the back foot just as well. You knew you couldn't walked to the crease with his shoulders pushed back. You could sense an anticipation in the stands, even when Kohli was playing outside of India. It was intimidating, and you just had to stay in control of your own was an intensity about everything he did, and that extended off the 2016, we played a five-Test series in India. It was a long, gruelling tour that turned out to be Alastair Cook's last as England you move around the country, tourists typically stay in the same hotels as the India team, so you see them quite a lot away from the things stood out. Firstly, if Kohli even set foot in the hotel lobby, it was pandemonium. There were people just trying to catch a glimpse of their hero as he made his way to the team bus. Living with that level of stardom and pressure is like nothing any English cricketer can was the way in which the India team had changed their attitude to training. On the previous Test tour, four years earlier, we would generally be the only team using the hotel gym. We would have free rein to use whatever equipment we 2016, these hotel gyms had now become boutiques to Kohli's fitness regime, and the rest of the team followed on his coattails. There were Olympics lifting bars, weights and an on-call fitness trainer. It was obvious we were dealing with a very different India team, one that became formidable as a Kohli intensity was always going to be hard to sustain and I don't think it's surprising his Test batting numbers tailed off towards the end of his captaincy, then again as he fell back into the does not detract from his status as a great of the game. In terms of the Fab Four, he is the first to retire from Test cricket and his numbers do not match those of Kane Williamson, Joe Root and Steve Kohli is a cricketer of more than numbers. What he has done for Test cricket is going to be difficult for the next generation of India cricketers to live up to. Their lives have been made easier by the foundations laid by Kohli. On a personal note, he is responsible for one of my few moments of cricket badgerism.I liked getting shirts from players in the opposition and I wanted one from the end of an ODI at Dharamsala in January 2013, we swapped shirts. We didn't sign them, but I kept hold of we next played against each other, at Edgbaston in August 2014, I took my shirt along and asked the dressing room attendant if Kohli could sign it. He did, addressing me as 'Steve', a name only my mum uses. Funnily enough, Kohli did not ask for me to sign his Finn shirt.I always found him to be polite, interesting and someone who would be a very good team-mate. I was never lucky enough to experience him as that.I don't think it's hyperbole to say that Kohli has done more to maintain the primacy of Test cricket than any other player in the modern would have been so easy for him to walk away from the grind much sooner than this. He could have basked in the financial prosperity of the Indian Premier League, influenced his 271m Instagram followers (three times more than David Beckham) and used his image to secure his family's Kohli understood that a cricketer's legacy is shaped by what they do in the longest format. As a sport, we have to hope the next Indian superstars have the same attitude.
