Virat Kohli reveals why RCB winning IPL title earlier 'wouldn't have felt even 5% the same'
Virat Kohli revealed the immense emotional weight lifted after Royal Challengers Bengaluru finally clinched their maiden IPL title after 18 years. He stated that a victory earlier in his career wouldn't have felt as special, highlighting the profound joy derived from overcoming decades of pressure and heartbreak alongside franchise icons and the city of Bengaluru.
NEW DELHI: In a candid reflection during RCB Podcast, Virat Kohli opened up about the raw emotion of finally breaking the IPL championship jinx, the legacy of RCB, and why a victory earlier in his career wouldn't have felt even a fraction as special. For 18 long years, RCB carried the pressure of being IPL’s ‘almost champions’. No individual lived through that mounting pressure more intensely than Virat Kohli.
Reflecting on the breathtaking final moments of last year's final, he revealed the weight of expectations that was unburdened when the winning moment arrived. “It’s very difficult to explain to people in words how I felt in the last four balls of the last over," Kohli said. "When you see from the outside what has happened to the franchise, how RCB has been looked at for so many years as a big team, a big franchise that's never won...
There's one thing to observe and there's one thing to live it. And I have lived through all of those seasons. ” Kohli said during the podcast.
Kohli, who started his IPL journey with the franchise as a teenager in the opening season in 2008 and was the only player retained by management in 2011, noted that the decades of heartbreak actually amplified the joy of the eventual triumph. "I can for sure, with absolute honesty and clarity, say that it wouldn't have been 5% of the feeling I had had we won it in the earlier years," Kohli admitted, pointing to the accumulation of stress over nearly two decades. "For it to happen after 18 years, there couldn't have been a better experience for me in my cricketing journey.