Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore were out of the playoff race in the Indian Premier League 2023. The team’s defeat against defending champions Gujarat Titans meant that it was another edition of the IPL without a trophy for Kohli. Though the RCB opener has been in scintillating form this season, his team could not cross the winning line in Sunday’s do-or-die match.
Now former England batsman Kevin Pietersen has made a shocking comment on Kohli’s future in IPL. The England batsman, who was once a part of the RCB unit, indicated that the time has come for Kohli to change his venture. Pietersen believes that the shift to Delhi, their home ground, could help India’s batsmen.
Pietersen wrote, “Time for Virat to step into the capital city…!”.
Time for Virat to step into the capital city_! #IPL — Kevin Pietersen_ (@KP24) May 22, 2023
Kohli has been a part of the Bengaluru-based outfit since the inception of the IPL in 2008. He was the captain of the franchise from 2013 to 2022. Under his leadership, Royal Challengers Bangalore reached the final in 2016, but lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad. ,
Interestingly, Virat Kohli had earlier revealed that in the first IPL auction, due to his performances in Ranji Trophy and Under-19 cricket, the Delhi franchise was interested in him but eventually went for another player. . In a podcast with RCB last year, Kohli said, “There was a conversation where I heard from people that the Delhi team was keen to go after me but their team dynamics turned out to be such that they went for Pradeep Sangwan – who left Hath was a fast bowler, amazing bowler, at that time he was our best bowler in U-19.So Delhi decided to go with him because they wanted their bowling to be strong and RCB picked me.
The right-handed batsman called joining the Bengaluru-based outfit a “pivotal moment” in his life and claimed that he would not have had things any other way.
Virat Kohli is the leading run-scorer in IPL history with 7,263 runs in 237 matches. The right-handed batsman has also managed to set the record for most centuries in IPL – seven. Kohli broke Chris Gayle’s record of six tons on Sunday. But, his efforts were in vain as the clinical Gujarat Titans managed to snatch the game by 6 wickets thanks to a century from Shubman Gill.