Virat Kohli is one of the few players to have played for the same team throughout his IPL career. Back in 2011, his career was taking off, and he won his first Man of the Match award in the IPL. Kohli’s team, Royal Challengers Bangalore, was chasing a target of 161 runs set by Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals). He scored 56 runs in 38 balls, leading his team to victory. Chris Gayle had also contributed, scoring 26 runs in 14 balls to give RCB a good start.
Looking back at his post-match presentation, Kohli said he didn’t plan to bat that way. He just started hitting the ball, and Gayle took charge, allowing both of them to play their shots freely. Now, in a recent show on JioHotstar, Kohli reviewed that old video and said, “I don’t even remember what I said. I just wanted Chris to play his shots freely. Misunderstanding, I guess.” He thinks fans overanalyze players’ words since social media became a thing.
That 2011 interview is 14 years old now. Since then, Kohli has become one of the greatest white-ball cricketers. During IPL 2025, he reached 13,000 runs in his T20 career, the first Indian and fifth player worldwide to achieve this. Kohli has scored 13,050 runs in 403 T20 matches so far.