You Just Feel Like You’ve Come Home- RCB’s Virat Kohli On His Love For Bangalore

Virat Kohli might hail from Delhi and live in Mumbai, but he has a special connection with the city of Bengaluru, previously known as Bangalore. This is due to his 15-year association with the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), which is based in the Karnataka capital.

He was bought by the franchise outside of the inaugural IPL auction in 2008, from a draft of the U19 players. Kohli had just captained India U19 to the World Cup win in Malaysia and despite the Delhi-based franchise having first right to draft him, they let him go for Pradeep Sangwan and Bangalore rightfully went for Kohli.

Despite a jittery start, Kohli soon became the mainstay of the team and then took over captain from Daniel Vettori in 2013. He led the team to the final of the IPL 2016 and had helped the team qualify for the playoffs in the last two seasons of the IPL, but the title continues to elude him and the RCB franchise.

I Have Made Some Amazing Friends Here (Bangalore)- Virat Kohli

Before the IPL 2021 commenced, Virat Kohli shockingly announced that he was stepping down as RCB captain after the IPL 14 season. He was retained for the IPL 2022 edition by the franchise and in a video shared by RCB, Kohli can be heard talking about his connection with the city of Bangalore.

“It’s always had a strong impact on my life starting from the time we used to come to Bangalore for the Under-14, Under-15 NCA camps and we used to be there for 2-2.5 months at one stretch so we used to explore quite a bit of Bangalore even then.

The city has a very different feel to any other place in India. It is just when you arrive, you land at the airport and you are driving to the hotel, you just feel like you’ve come home. That’s a very difficult feeling to get in a city that you haven’t been born and grown up in and you just go there for a period in the year,” said Kohli on the RCB podcast.

Kohli spoke about the people he met and become friends with, in the city fondly and labelled them as people who have a completely organic relationship with him.

“I have made some amazing friends there. Absolutely chilled out people, very nice people. I haven’t felt that the friends I have made in Bengaluru have tried to capitalize on who I have become. They have always stayed true to the organic side of the friendship,” said Kohli.

Kohli will be seen playing for the RCB franchise in IPL 2022 which begins on March 26.

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