No player has been as synonymous with an IPL franchise as Virat Kohli for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru. The 37-year-old remains the only player in the tournament's history to have played every edition of the IPL for the same franchise. However, in an interview on RCB's social media page, the former India captain made a striking revelation, saying that at one point in his career, he did consider switching teams.
In the new RCB podcast shared on Tuesday, Kohli opened up on the difficult phase in his career between 2016 and 2019. During this time, he was burdened by the expectation of being the captain of the Indian team and the RCB. The India legend admitted the rising expectations from world cricket and the constant focus on his performance forced him to step down from captaincy.
"I've told this before. I've had this opportunity to explore, to look elsewhere, especially in the peak years of my career. From 2016-19, I had these constant suggestions to switch.. At one point it did become really tough for me because there was too much happening in my career. I was captaining India for a period of 7-8 years, was captaining RCB for 9 year. There were expectations from me from the batting perspective, every game I played.
"I did not have the sense, that attention was off me. I was always in the space where I didn't know 'what to do'? I was exposed to it 24×7 and it got really tough on me. I decided, if I wanted to be in this place, I needed to be happy. I wanted to be in space where I could just play my cricket, without being judged," he told Mayanti Langer in the podcast.
{{/usCountry}}"I did not have the sense, that attention was off me. I was always in the space where I didn't know 'what to do'? I was exposed to it 24×7 and it got really tough on me. I decided, if I wanted to be in this place, I needed to be happy. I wanted to be in space where I could just play my cricket, without being judged," he told Mayanti Langer in the podcast.
{{/usCountry}}Kohli stepped down as RCB captain after the end of the IPL 2021 season. Shortly after, he relinquished his leadership role in the T20I format for India. With BCCI not wanting two different white-ball leaders, he was removed from ODI captaincy in November 2021. The decision sparked a back-and-forth between Kohli and then BCCI president Sourav Ganguly, before the format gave up his Test captaincy in January 2022, less than 24 hours after India lost the series in South Africa.
'I did think about switching'
Kohli further admitted that it was during these tough years that he first considered switching from RCB, but he added he was never "tempted" by the possibility. Eventually, "mutual respect" and the "valuable" relationship he built over the years in RCB mattered more to him than a new setup.
Kohli said: "I wouldn't say I was tempted, but I did think about it. I also asked myself the question 'what is more valuable to me'. 'I won a lot of things in my career for India. I have won a lot of accolades as well'.
"So I had to take a call. 'Do I want to go into a new setup and figure out life again'. So that is when I realised that the relationship is more valuable to me, and also the mutual respect that has been created over the so many years. And now I'm just gonna see it through. Whether we win or don't win, it's fine. This is my home."