Virat Kohli is one of the few players still active in the IPL who has been around since it started in 2008. He and Ishant Sharma are the only ones to have played in the very first match of the league, with Kohli representing the Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Sharma with Kolkata Knight Riders at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. Kohli has played all 18 seasons for the same team, which makes him a big part of RCB’s identity.
His journey with the Royal Challengers began after he got turned down by the Delhi Daredevils, now known as Delhi Capitals. They chose to sign left-arm bowler Pradeep Sangwan instead of Kohli, who later became known for breaking batting records. Virender Sehwag, who captained the Delhi team back in 2008, shared his thoughts on this missed chance, saying they had enough batsmen at the time. He mentioned players like Gautam Gambhir and Shikhar Dhawan were already on the team, so they opted to pick a bowler instead.
Kohli has made a huge impact representing RCB, playing 277 matches, including 15 in the now-defunct Champions League T20. He is the leading scorer in IPL history, with 8,447 runs, averaging 39.47 and having a strike rate of 132.31. If we count his runs from CLT20, his total is nearly 9,000.
In his latest IPL game against Delhi Capitals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, he scored 51 runs off 47 balls, helping his team bounce back from a tough start. He built a solid partnership with Krunal Pandya, who scored 73 not out, leading RCB to a six-wicket win. This performance currently has Kohli at the top of the IPL 2025 run-scorer’s list, holding the ‘Orange Cap’ with 443 runs so far this season.