Virat Kohli's '18 till I fly' dream takes off as RCB universe conspires to try giving their talisman the elusive IPL trophy

Couple of years ago, a bespectacled Virat Kohli unexpectedly opened his heart out to a small gathering of RCB women players.

- GNS News Agency

They had had a disastrous season that year, their first, and Kohli didn’t just offer vague consultatory words, but dipped into his own experiences, his failures, his insecurities and his long wait for the IPL trophy. “If we don’t win I am not going to go to my grave thinking only if I had won the IPL I would have been a happy man dying; it doesn’t happen like that!” he smiled.He wasn't done yet. “I have needed constant reminders even from youngsters. I have been under pressure, I have been insecure, tried to protect my performances, tried to protect my reputation, ‘oh I am Virat Kohli I need to perform every game, can’t get out’ and then the youngsters come and tell me why I didn’t hit that ball.. I was like yeah they are right.“I was caught up with ‘me me me’, and what I should do, how people are looking at me and who I am, and in all that stuff that I forgot how to play the game. That's all we need to remember how not to complicate this.”"Some of those frank words wouldn't have surprised those who had closely seen him play in the IPL over the years. Especially that ‘can’t get out’ mode that he would occasionally get stuck in. In the last couple of years, he has tried his best to shrug that off, extend himself in the powerplay, play the big shots if required without fussing too much about the what-if scenario of getting dismissed.He might have told AB de Villiers not to say the old RCB slogan ‘ee-saala cup namde’ (This year, the cup will be ours) according to the South African, but he hasn't been shy of fronting up to the potential triumph. Sometime early in the tournament, as a promotional piece for the tournament for the official broadcasters, he was in an advert where he referenced the 18th year of