The Aryavarth Express
AHMEDABAD: The chiselled, sweat-glistened face of Virat Kohli was filled with impatience. The maiden IPL title for him and the Royal Challengers Bengaluru was a good over away.
He was desperate for that famous Kohli run — fingers pointed heavenwards with a wide grin plastered across the face.
11.25 pm: Josh Hazlewood successfully defended 29 runs in the 20th over. But all Kohli could do was to hide his face in his palms with tear-filled eyes and baulk. Teammates soon enveloped him as their endearing No. 18 met his destiny after 18 years.
Was it the credit-rolling moment of an extraordinary relationship between a player and franchise that lasted 18 years through mind-boggling highs and heartbreaking lows?
It’s a weird thought at this moment of personal and collective glory. But it could not be avoided as the journey came to its much-desired full circle.
The first chapter of the Kohli and RCB series began in 2008, and it has transformed into a long-drawn TV drama like The Young and the Restless”.
Kohli was young and restless 18 years back — an irreverent, chubby South Delhi dandy who just wanted to take on the whole wide world in pursuit of victory.
An anomaly in the dressing room that then contained Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Jacques Kallis, etc.
But RCB trusted Kohli, and their former owner, Vijay Mallya, a horse lover, let him be his own and allowed him time to mature into a thoroughbred.
Perhaps, he fit seamlessly into the upmarket and bold image of the franchise. It was a soap opera.
But the relationship took a new turn in 2011. The Royal Challengers trusted a 22-year-old with the leadership role.
Many 22-year-olds could have wilted in the high-pressure environment, but not this 22-year-old.
An innate love for cameras, headlines, and the will to fight and learn helped him embrace the job wholeheartedly.
Kohli was in the hot seat for 12 years and 143 matches, and he remained firm there too even when the team failed to bag a trophy.
Gradually, he established a close connection with Bengalureans. His charisma was a big factor in turning the city dwellers into RCB faithfuls.
It wasn’t an instant link like the one Chennai established with MS Dhoni, but it was more slow-brewing, like the maturing of a top-of-the-line wine.
That was partially because Dhoni came to the Super Kings as India’s T20 World Cup 2007 winning captain, and he was already a national icon, a symbol of youthful success.
Kohli too had led India to the 2008 U19 World Cup by the time the inaugural season of the IPL began, but the Indian cricketing world was not yet ready to accept Kohli as a young prodigy.
It took them some time to see the genius of Kohli, but even then Kohli was famous but was not loved. However, he remained a persuasive conversational centrepiece.
Kohli was at the forefront of his club’s PR pushes and its face on social media; he reiterated the inner synergy he feels with the red and gold jersey.
In fact, Kohli was a magnificent distraction for RCB fans from their lack of trophy triumph until now.
A driven individual, it does not need any second guessing to realise that Kohli felt the hurt of seeing a bare cupboard even as two rival Southern clubs added trophies.
The Super Kings marched to a record five titles, and Sunrisers Hyderabad and Deccan Chargers jointly bagged two.
Mumbai Indians under his revered comrade Rohit Sharma also clinched five titles.
But Kohli never showed the angst in public or never thought of severing his ties with RCB. In fact, he always underlined his closeness to the outfit.
“In terms of desires, everything is okay. But being with RCB is never going to go away. For me, what’s more valuable is the relationship and the mutual respect that have been created over so many years.
“The love that I have received from the fans, I don’t think any silverware or any trophy can come close to that,” Kohli had told the RCB podcast last month.
But he would have dreamt of holding that trophy aloft one day, and it came on a sweat-drenched Ahmedabad night.
The finest showman of this decade of cricket, the lead guitarist of the IPL and T20s, stood crowned. Nothing else mattered more in this emotional moment.
