“The amount we got picked for, it was absolutely crazy”, Virat Kohli recalls getting picked by RCB in IPL 2008 auction
Virat Kohli reminisced the feeling of being picked at the auction for the inaugural edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) back in 2008.
Kohli said it was an “absolutely crazy” day as the then uncapped Indian U-19 talent to be bought at the auction by Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), with whom he has had an unbroken 14-year association since then.
Today, in a hypothetical scenario, if Kohli ever enters a bidding war in the IPL, he is expected to fetch a multimillion-dollar sum. But back in the day, the young gun was picked by RCB for a modest amount of USD 30,000. Even that, however, was a great vote of confidence for Kohli, who was in Malaysia at the time playing the U-19 World Cup.
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Virat Kohli has been playing for RCB in the IPL since 2008.
Virat Kohli recalls IPL 2008 auction
“We were all in Malaysia for the U-19 World Cup. I remember the day when the drafts were happening. The U-19 dynamic was a little different, because we very rightly so had a money cap, if I could say. That was the only time where I saw a restriction on how much you can be picked for if you haven’t played for India,” Virat Kohli told Danish Sait in a podcast for the mighty popular RCB franchise.
“So that for us, I remember even that moment for us was so amazing. Because the amount that we got picked for when they announced it, we couldn’t believe it because it was absolutely crazy.”
Kohli’s IPL bid was strengthened with his amazing run at the youth World Cup in Kuala Lumpur where his aggressive batting and zeal as India’s U-19 captain stood out. The Delhi-born batter, who is today world cricket’s biggest name, took a giant leap towards the IPL and international reckoning with 235 runs from his 6 innings at an average of 47 and strike-rate of 94.75.
He looked the most developed of the Indian batters on show throughout the tournament. Thus, it came as no surprise when the national selectors decided to fast-track him to the top-level game with a maiden call-up for the ODI series in Sri Lanka that year.
Going back to the IPL 2008 auction, Virat Kohli also recalled getting feelers through conversations that he might not get to play for the Delhi franchise in the tournament. Kohli got to know that while Delhi Daredevils are interested in having him, they will instead bid for promising quick Pradeep Sangwan to beef up their bowling.
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“There was one conversation where I heard from people that the Delhi team was interested to go after me but the dynamic of their team was such that they went for Pradeep Sangwan, who was a left-arm seamer,” Kohli said.
“An amazing bowler, at that time he was our best bowler in the U-19 team. So Delhi decided to go for him because they wanted the bowling strength.”
“RCB picked me, that I think, in the hindsight, I feel like was such an impactful moment in my life that I didn’t realise at that time. But now when I look back, things would have been very different to what they are now. I do not want to have it any other way than this,” he added.
Kohli, 33, has now made 6,283 runs in his 207 matches of the IPL for RCB. The former skipper of the side stepped away from the leadership post at the end of the IPL 2021 but was retained as specialist batter ahead of the IPL 2022 mega auction for a sum of INR 15 crores.