 "Virat Kohli had been overlooked by Delhi Darevils (currently Delhi Capitals) ahead of the inaugural season of the Indian Premier League in 2008, with the Virender Sehwag-led franchise eventually signing left-arm pacer Pradeep Sangwan. AP/AFP")
Virat Kohli is among the handful of active players who have played the Indian Premier League (IPL) since the inaugural edition in 2008. Kohli and Ishant Sharma are also the only players who had featured in the first-ever Indian Premier League match , representing Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Kolkata Knight Riders respectively at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
And Kohli is the only player to have played all 18 seasons of the Indian Premier League for the same franchise, because of which he is synonymous with RCB.
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The batting superstar’s 17-year association with the Royal Challengers, however, was the result of him being rejected by the Delhi Daredevils, the franchise that currently goes by the name Delhi Capitals which had opted to sign left-arm seamer Pradeep Sangwan instead of the individual who would go on to smash batting records for fun in the future.
Delhi had plenty of batting options, needed a bowler: Sehwag
Indian batting legend Virender Sehwag, who had captained the Delhi franchise in the inaugural edition in 2008 as well as in the next four seasons, explained the reason behind what many consider the biggest missed opportunities in cricket history.
“We had enough batters in our team. I was there along with Gautam Gambhir, Shikhar Dhawan, (Tillakaratne) Dilshan. There was an abundance of openers and top-order batters. AB de Villiers was also part of the side,” Sehwag, who would later represent Punjab Kings (then known as Kings XI Punjab) said on Cricbuzz.
“So we had plenty of batters, but not too many bowlers. We thought of picking a bowler from the list, and a left-armer would have brought variety to the attack.
Impact Shorts
View All“He (Sangwan) performed well, as did Yo Mahesh. These two young bowlers did well for us in the first three IPL seasons,” he added.
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Kohli would go on to represent RCB in 277 matches, including 15 games in the now-defuct Champions League T20. He remains the highest run-scorer in the history of the league with 8.447 runs at an average of 39.47 and a career strike rate of 132.31.
His run tally, however, nearly touches 9,000 when taking his CLT20 contributions into account.
Kohli’s most recent appearance in the IPL was against DC at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, his home ground.
The former India and RCB captain struck 51 off 47 balls, helping his team recover from a shaky start and steering them towards a six-wicket victory by forging a 119-run fourth-wicket partnership with Krunal Pandya (73 not out).
The knock helped him move to the top of the IPL 2025 run-getters’ list, with Kohli currently in possession of the ‘Orange Cap’ with 443 runs so far this season.