The highest-paid player in the history of IPL, Virat Kohli is the biggest name in Indian cricket and a cult figure at the international level. The Indian skipper took giant steps soon after his debut and rose to fame quite quickly. The quickest batsman to score 10000 runs in ODIs, Kohli is undoubtedly an epitome of success and thrives to achieve more.
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In IPL, he has been leading Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) for seven years now but the team is yet to win the trophy even once. Kohli’s dominance, despite poor results, can be felt by the fact that the franchise cannot even think of removing him. But why? In IPL, Kohli means RCB and RCB means Virat Kohli. He is the brand ambassador of the team.
But do you know the ‘brand Kohli’ wasn’t the first choice of an IPL team even after leading India U-19 to a title victory in 2008? A few days after India U-19 won the trophy, Kohli was one of two players up for grabs and Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi capitals) had a choice to pick between Kohli and all-rounder Pradeep Sangwan. The franchise went for the all-rounder. Kohli went to RCB and rest is history. He has been part of RCB since then.
Kohli’s IPL career –
He struggled at the start of his career and only managed 165, 246 and 307 runs, respectively, in the first three years. Despite that, the franchise backed him and Kohli was the only player to be retained by RCB ahead of IPL 2011 auction. The move proved to be a masterstroke as Kohli hit the purple patch and became the backbone of RCB in the coming years.
He took over as s captain in IPL 2013 and has kept the position till now. The only player to be part of only one franchise in every IPL season, Kohli scored 973 runs IPL 2016 at 81.08. With 5412 runs, he is the highest run-scorer in the T20 league.
He is set to lead RCB in yet another season and will hope to finally lead the franchise to a title victory on this occasion.