Kohli Says RCB Title Win Was Most Emotional Of Career

NEW DELHI -India’s star batter Virat Kohli said finally winning the Indian Premier League (IPL) title with Royal Challengers Bengaluru last season before the end of his career was one of the most emotional moments of his cricketing journey.

Reflecting on the franchise’s historic title triumph in the RCB podcast, the former RCB captain said the emotions were impossible to describe after the team ended its 18-year wait for the IPL trophy.

“All those emotions, all those feelings came out in a form of just being on my knees and just holding my hands and saying, thank you. That I could experience this before I stopped playing,” Kohli said.

Kohli was visibly emotional after Royal Challengers Bengaluru defeated Punjab Kings in the IPL final at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on June 3 to win their maiden title.

The star batter, who has represented the franchise since 2008 and also captained the side, said years of near misses and heartbreak made the victory even more meaningful.

“I still say it’s very difficult to explain to people in words how I felt in the last four balls of the last over. 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, big franchise that’s never won – the almost champions, the ones that have come close but never really won the trophy.

“And for that pressure to build over so many years, like season after season. There’s one thing to observe it, and there’s one thing to live it. And I have lived through all of those seasons,” he added.

The 37-year-old added that the long wait to lift the trophy with the franchise he had given everything to made the achievement even more special.

“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. And the accumulation of all that stress and all that pressure. And for it to happen after 18 years, there couldn’t have been a better experience for me in my cricketing journey,” he added. (IANS)