Virat Kohli is one of the greatest batsmen in the cricket world currently. Over the years, he has gained the image of ‘Mr. Dependable’ with his passion for the game and exceptional batting skills. Talking about his IPL career, he is the highest-run scorer in the history of the Indian Premier League, however, despite that he is yet to lift the trophy.
As the Indian Premier League gained success, some of its franchises are known because of their players. For instance: MS Dhoni is the face of Chennai Super Kings, Rohit Sharma is the face of Mumbai Indians and similarly, Virat Kohli has become the face of Royal Challengers Bangalore, as ever since its inception, Virat Kohli has been associated with the RCB franchise.
But now many are aware of the fact that in 2008 edition of the league, Delhi Daredevils, now Capitals had the chance to pick Virat Kohli in the inaugural edition of the league. It was in the same year when Virat Kohli had guided team India to victory in the U19 World Cup in Kuala Lumpur.
During the U19 tournament, Virat Kohli gave many brilliant performances and even smashed a century against West Indies. His performance caught the eyes of the IPL franchises.
However, Delhi Daredevils went for Pradeep Sangwan and not Virat Kohli as they wanted to have enough ammunition in their batting since they had destructive batsmen like AB de Villiers and Virender Sehwag in their team. Talking about the same, Sundar Raman, the former IPL Chief Operating Officer in the podcast 22 Yarns with host Gaurav Kapur, said:
“Interestingly, that was also the year India had won the U-19 World Cup, just a month before the auction. They were captained by Virat Kohli and we decided to keep a separate draft for the U-19 players a few days after the auction. Surprise, surprise! Virat Kohli was not the first player to be picked in the draft,”
Delhi passed on him, actually, and picked Pradeep Sangwan instead, because they said they didn’t need another batsman. And they didn’t actually, they had Virender Sehwag and AB de Villiers. They were right in their thinking, but RCB picked him up and the rest as they say is history,”
