Former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen spent a good time with Virat Kohli during his early cricket career. From that early time, Pietersen realised that Kohli would become a great cricketer.
Pietersen and Kohli played together previously in the Indian Premier League (IPL). In his IPL career, Pietersen served for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) from 2009 to 2010. In his first IPL season (2009), Pietersen also led the RCB side in six matches.
On the other hand, Kohli is serving for the RCB since the inaugural IPL season (2008). At present, he is not only the captain of RCB, but he also serves as one of the best captains in the Indian national cricket team history.
Apart from leading the national team to the top positions in every format, including maintaining the no.1-ranked position in the ICC Test team rankings for a long time, Kohli is also a top-class batsman in every format.
While it is hard for many batsmen to break the top-level records in the international career, Kohli has now made it a regular job with his consistent batting performances.
During his tenure as a player in RCB, Pietersen was impressed by Kohli’s curiosity to learn better.
Pietersen told Betway, “Sitting on the bus with Virat and batting with Virat, I knew he was destined for greatness because of how he approached the game and the way he learnt and the questions he asked.”
We do have an incredible friendship: Kevin Pietersen about Virat Kohli
Talking about Kohli’s desperate mindset from an early age to become the best, Pietersen shared an old incident during an IPL match. It was the match between Rajasthan Royals and RCB at Jaipur on 14th April 2010, where Pietersen’s destructive batting secured a comfortable victory for RCB.
After scoring 62 runs off 29 balls (10 fours and 2 sixes), Pietersen lost his wicket unfortunately due to a misunderstanding with Kohli in the running between the wickets.
Though Pietersen was the set and experienced batsman, Kohli didn’t sacrifice his wicket at that moment.
Pietersen recalled his memory, “He was a chubby little fella back then and I still take the mickey out of him for it. But his determination to be the best player he could possibly be was evident. I remember I was winning a game for us against Rajasthan Royals and he ran me out. I gave him an absolute serve walking off the field.
“But you could see this was a youngster who was determined to get his team over the line.
“He wasn’t just going to give his wicket away and it didn’t matter how many Tests I’d played or how much more senior I was. We do have an incredible friendship, probably because of the way I treated him when he was a youngster and how I helped and guided him at the start of his career.”
At present, Kohli is the No. 2-ranked Test batsman and No.1-ranked ODI batsman.