Indian captain Virat Kohli is not only the king of one format, but he has proved his mettle across formats. He is one of the most experienced players in the current team, who featured in 86 Test matches, 248 ODIs, and 82 T20Is so far. In the Indian Premier League also, his consistent batting performance has delivered goods for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).
Currently, he is the only player in the team who has been part of both India’s victory in ICC World Cup 2011 and ICC Champions Trophy 2013. However, he hasn’t been yet successful as a captain to led the team to victory in the ICC tournament.
RCB skipper is also devoid of the IPL title though the franchise has three times entered the grand finale of the tournament. But as a player, he is on the top of the chart, scoring 5412 runs in 177 IPL matches.
In a recent interaction, Kohli revealed what the significant difference in playing ICC tournaments and the IPL is.
I absolutely love IPL: Virat Kohli
According to Kohli, in ICC tournaments, there is more competition between the two teams while in IPL, players get the opportunity to play with their competitors as well as new players. He heaps the praise of tournament, saying that he loves the lucrative league because it helps to connect with the fans.
“You do play all your tournaments, which is one team versus another, ICC tournaments come every now and then, but even in ICC tournaments, you don’t really interact with the other team players or you see the other teams so often every now and then,” Virat Kohli said on Star Sports Cricket Connected.
“But in the IPL, you are just probably meeting another team every second or third day and that’s the beauty of the IPL, you are playing in a different ‘mahol’ (atmosphere).”
“I absolutely love that tournament and also for the camaraderie which you share with so many new players that you play with, so many players that you have known for a long time now, not from your own country, those who you don’t see often, and there is one reason why everyone loves the IPL too, there is a connect, of players and fans and of viewers,” said Kohli.
The 13th edition of IPL, which was earlier scheduled to start from 29th March, has been postponed indefinitely. There are speculations that the tournament can be scheduled later this year before T20 World Cup 2020.