Legendary Indian cricketer Virat Kohli talked candidly about his feelings and response after being selected by the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the 2008 IPL mega auction. Since the 19-year-old had not yet made his debut for India, he was listed among the first-class cricket players.
Virat Kohli disclosed that at the time of the auction, they were in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
It was his first IPL auction, and interestingly, it was also his final one because RCB kept him around for the next several years because of his exceptional league play. Since he had recently won the U-19 World Cup as captain of India, Kohli was already well-known. But he earned his international debut after participating in the IPL.
The right-handed hitter was overjoyed to receive INR 20 lakh at auction during the league’s first season. The cricket player’s steady performances and game-winning knocks in the IPL and international cricket have earned him INR 21 crore from the same franchise this year. “The feeling was’surreal’ because it was totally unexpected,” he said.
We were in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, when the auction took place, and we were only allowed to bid Rs 20 lakhs for the sale of first-class cricket players. In the hallway, we yelled, “We got Rs 20 lakhs!” That was the feeling that caused it. It was weird because we had no idea what to anticipate, including the opening ceremony and the entire experience of meeting legendary cricket players,” Kohli added, as reported by The Indian Express.
The first season’s aftermath was genuinely historic. After 262 matches and 8447 runs, Kohli is currently the IPL’s top scorer. His average is 39.47, and he has eight hundreds to his credit. Kohli talked about the rivalry between RCB and CSK and how much he likes to play them in Bengaluru.
“The Chennai Super Kings in Bengaluru are one team who I believe we have played the most intense games against in the past. Since there are obviously Chennai fans in Chennai, it’s just yellow, and there are CSK fans everywhere. However, playing CSK in Bengaluru is a different matter because many Chennai supporters travel there. Due of their large travel numbers, CSK supporters get tickets in advance and occupy a portion of the stadium,” Kohli continued.
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