Virat Kohli and Royal Challengers Bangalore are practically synonymous when it comes to the Indian Premier League. The star India batter has played for the franchise since the inception of the tournament back in 2008 and he has emerged as a mega star to the RCB fans. In a recent interaction with former India cricketer Robin Uthappa on JioCinema, Kohli opened up on his partnership with RCB over the years and even spoke about another franchise that came close to acquiring his services. However, the former India skipper was quick to point out that his plan for his career was not aligned with that team.

“It’s been amazing. Why I value this partnership and journey with RCB so much, is because in the first 3 years of the IPL, they backed me a lot. Even when the retentions happened, they said, ‘we want to retain you’. My only feedback to Ray Jennings at the time was ‘I want to bat in top-order. I bat at 3 for India, and I want to bat at 3’. And they said, ‘okay, you will bat at 3’. They showed faith in me at the time when I needed it. I was growing in my international career as well,” Kohli said.

Kohli also said that he had a clear answer for the franchise when they came for him.

“That is of more value for me. I won’t take names but another franchise who I spoke to at the time… they were not even keen enough to listen to me. I was playing lower down the order at the time (5-6). I was like, ‘if I could get the opportunity to bat in the top of the order somewhere else…’ The same franchise, because I had played for India and performed in 2011, before the retention, came to me and said, ‘can you please come to the auction?’ I said, ‘no chance. I will always be with the franchise that backs me’,” Kohli explained in the interview while speaking about his other options.

Uthappa was taken aback by the response but Kohli said that the answer was straight forward.

“Yes, it was. And they denied it straightaway. I was like, fair enough.”