Kohli Back Where He Belongs

IT was about 1.30pm on a humid Friday afternoon in Bengaluru.

- GOMESH S @ Bengaluru

Unlike the previous evening, the M Chinnaswamy Stadium entrance was a lot less crowded when the Royal Challengers Bengaluru team bus entered the venue on the eve of the clash against Kolkata Knight Riders—the one that heralds the resumption of 2025 Indian Premier League.

Maybe the fans who wanted to get a glimpse of their cricketing hero Virat Kohli brought traffic to a standstill on Cubbon Road late on Thursday evening, did not know that RCB were training in the afternoon. For a while, it did seem like they would not miss their idol as it turned out to be an optional training session on Friday. Not everyone took the team bus including the recently retired former India Test captain Kohli.

Throughout this week, right from the time Kohli shared his Test retirement on Instagram, he has been the biggest talking point. As soon as it was announced that the IPL will resume with an RCB versus KKR game at the here, social media was flooded with posts of fans egging on each other to turn up for the venue in whites, donning Kohli's No 18 on the back as a tribute to the most successful Test captain India has ever had. The superstar who has carved the identity for the franchise is after all the only player to represent the same team in all 18 seasons of the IPL.