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Cricket Players'I looked at Anushka and she said, 'Don't tell me'. She knew': Kohli recalls De Villiers' voice note on IPL retirement
Following the end of IPL 2021, De Villiers had decided to draw curtains on his cricket career, hence retiring from IPL
This is the first ever Indian Premier League (IPL) season without AB de Villiers, who was the only overseas player to be part of every IPL season between 2008 and 2021. 11 of those 14 years in the tournament were spent with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) where he formed one of the best cricketing pairs outside international cricket with Virat Kohli. However, following the end of IPL 2021, he decided to draw curtains on his cricket career, hence retiring from IPL as well and former RCB skipper Kohli recalled the moment he first heard about the retirement news.
Speaking to RCB in a video which was released on their official Twitter handle on Tuesday, Kohli recalled the moment he had received the voice note from De Villiers.
"It is very strange, I mean. I clearly remember when he decided to finally call it a day, he sent me a voice note. And, I still remember we were coming back from Dubai after the World Cup, and I got this voice note, and we were driving back home. I got the voice note, I opened it and listened to it. Anushka was with me and I looked at her like this. The first thing she said was, don’t tell me. She knew," he said.
Kohli further recollected that during the previous season he had got the impression about the same.
"I kind of had the impression during the last IPL. He kept telling me, our rooms were next to each other. I want to see you for coffee one of these days. I kept getting nervous, I was like I am not sitting with you, I think there’s something coming," he added.
“He said ‘I just want to sit and chat with you, it’s been a while.’ And he never speaks like that, you know, because we interact all the time. I knew something was brewing up. It’s a very strange feeling, I got very emotional, the voice note was very emotional as well for me when he said I don’t have it in me anymore.”
RCB did make a good start to their post-De Villiers period as they lost to Punjab Kings in Mumbai after setting a 206-run target.
