Aakash Chopra reveals the team that offered Virat Kohli a contract in IPL
Published - 21 Jan 2024, 02:19 PM
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Former India opener Aakash Chopra has picked Virat Kohli’s loyalty towards his IPL team Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) as one of his defining traits. Virat Kohli has spent all his career playing for the Bengaluru-based franchise and has been their most successful player in the history of the league. He has led the team to finals in 2016 but has failed to win a single IPL trophy with the franchise.
Virat Kohli was picked by the Royal Challengers Bangalore in a draft ahead of the inaugural season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2008. He has featured for the same franchise since then and has amassed 7263 runs in 229 innings which is the most in IPL history. He has smashed 50 half-centuries and seven centuries in IPL and has an average of 37.25 and a strike rate of 130.02.
“He is a mighty player, scores a lot of runs, and breaks batting records year after year but they don’t win. This player doesn’t like losing. However, he kept his loyalty to RCB. He says that until he plays, he will play for them only. You rarely see such a commitment at a franchise level,” the former India opener added.
Only Virat Kohli And MS Dhoni Have Stuck With Their First Franchise In The IPL
Aakash Chopra observed that Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni are the only two players in the IPL to have stuck with their original franchises after 16 seasons. MS Dhoni played for Rising Pune Super Giants in the middle for a couple of seasons when Chennai Super Kings were banned. This will be the 17th year for Virat Kohli in the Royal Challengers Bangalore and he will be hoping for the first title for his team after 16 years of trying and failing.
Virat Kohli recently returned to the T20Is when India faced Afghanistan in a three-match T20I series. He scored 29(16) in the second T20I which marked his return to the format after 429 days. Before this, he last played a T20I game against England in the semi-finals of the ICC T20 World Cup 2022. He had a great IPL last ear with the bat but the team failed to qualify for the play-offs.
This year, Virat Kohli will hope that things work out for Royal Challengers Bangalore and they qualify for the playoffs. They have played in the finals of the tournament three times but have failed to win it even once. The last time RCB played a final of the IPL was in 2016 when Virat Kohli single-handedly led the side to the finals amassing 973 runs in the season which is a record in the competition.
