>
>
Rohit Sharma on being asked if England were rightly awarded the World Cup title in 2019
Copyright © 2025 Cricket Winner. All Rights Reserved.
Published - May 7, 2025, 18:34 IST | Updated - May 7, 2025, 18:34 IST
Updated - May 7, 2025, 18:34 IST
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) has been in good form since the beginning of the ongoing IPL 2025. Virat Kohli, their star batter, is one of the reasons behind RCB's dominating performance on the field. The right-handed batter has so far made 7 half centuries in the, and all of the 50s he made guide RCB to victories. He has accumulated 505 runs from 11 innings at an average of 63.12 and a strike rate of 143.46. Recently, RCB released a new episode with Virat Kohli where he shared multiple unknown behind-the-scenes stories. Kohli talked about his early days in Team India, when he first stepped onto the field to face Pakistan with an attacking mind. The first time he was up against Pakistan, it was a 2009 Champions Trophy match.
Virat shared, "I think I scored about 16 runs, and then I tried to hit Shahid Afridi for a six straight down the ground at Centurion, and I got caught at long off. We lost that game. It was an important moment in the game, and my heart was beating so fast through the whole inning. I just couldn't process everything that happened in a span of four days. I remember us losing the game; it was a big loss, and I was awake till five in the morning, staring at the ceiling like, Is this it?"
Kohli, so far in his international career, has faced the archrivals 28 times across all formats and scored a total of 1270 runs, including four centuries and seven fifties.
Read More: Richard Kettleborough takes dig at Pakistan after Operation Sindoor by Indian Army
Virat Kohli has been playing for RCB since the inauguration season of the IPL, IPL 2008. From 2008 to now, 2015, in the meantime many renowned players had changed ships, but Virat chose to stay loyal. The star batter has revealed that he had multiple opportunities to make a change.
"From 2016 to 2019, there were constant suggestions for me to switch." So I had to make a decision: do I want to go into a new setup and figure things out again? That’s when I realized that the relationship I’ve built here is more valuable — and so is the mutual respect that’s developed over so many years," Kohli said, followed by, "This is my home."
Virat Kohli throughout his career has won multiple trophies and broken records, but the World Cup 2019 semifinal loss against New Zealand still haunts him. Then Virat was at his peak, helping Team India to qualify for the WC semi, and then the disappointing moment—India was knocked out.
Virat said, "After the semi-final got over, the next morning we were going to leave Manchester. You know, when you wake up and you have no kind of understanding of what you want to do, like you are dazed. It was like the feeling you get when you have a horrible hangover. I had no idea whether I wanted to drink coffee or brush my teeth. Like, what is the next step? I was completely gone."
ICC T20I World Cup 2024, a memorable chapter for crores of Indian cricket fans and Virat Kohli: Team India won the trophy. In the final match against South Africa, Virat Kohli played a match-winning 79-run knock. After the match and all the celebrations, he announced his retirement from the T20I format, which was pre-planned, revealed Kohli himself.
He informed, "I was more grateful than proud. I knew I was going to retire after that. Irrespective of the result, my decision was made. I was very clear that this is my last T20I tournament."
Unfortunately, the flamboyant cricketer found himself in controversial moments multiple times. Stepping down from the captaincy role of Team India was something beyond imagination for cricket fans at that moment. In the episode released by RCB, Virat told why he decided to leave the prestigious role.
"I was exposed to it 24x7. It did get very tough on me, and it didet to be too much in the end. That's why I stepped down because I felt like if I've decided I want to be in this place, I need to be happy," he said.
Tags:
8 hrs ago
Fantasy Cricket Tips
10 hrs ago
Cricket Stats
11 hrs ago
Cricket News