I was the one who picked Virat Kohli for RCB in IPL 2008: Vijay Mallya

Vijay Mallya, former owner of the IPL team Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) team, recently said that he was the first person to include Virat Kohli in RCB during the first season of IPL.

Significantly, recently, in the final of IPL 2025 on June 3, RCB has named IPL Trophy after 18 years. Virat Kohli played 17 seasons for the team as a player and captain, but he could not win the trophy even once. But under the captaincy of Rajat Patidar, RCB took the IPL Trophy in its first season.

Meanwhile, former team owner Mallya recalled the first auction and draft for the under-19 players, including Virat. During this, Mallya decided to include this Delhi player in the team.

He said that Kohli’s impressive performance for India in the Under-19 World Cup 2008 played an important role in influencing his decision. Mallya said that it was natural to later appoint the Indian veteran as the captain of the franchise.

Vijay Mallya made a big statement

Let me tell you that recently Vijay Mallya quoted the cricbing as saying- I was the person who had chosen Virat Kohli. I was sitting for selection, and as soon as my turn came, I immediately chose Virat. Apparently, his performance with India’s Under-19 team was an impressive factor. Therefore, he was a natural choice to become RCB captain.

Let me tell you that Virat Kohli has played 18 consecutive seasons for the RCB team, and he is the first player of league history to play cricket for the same team 18 seasons. So at the same time, during this time Kohli has scored a total of 8661 runs in 267 matches at an average of 39.55. He is the highest run -scorer in the IPL.