Virat Kohli of Royal Challengers Bengaluru reacts during an IPL 2025 match vs Delhi Capitals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi. (Sportzpics)With Virat Kohli set to play his first competitive match on Saturday after announcing his Test retirement, Royal Challengers Bengaluru team director Mo Bobat said that the star batter still retains the competitive edge and is looking forward to what he can achieve with RCB in the IPL. Kohli’s Bengaluru will host defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders at the Chinnaswamy with RCB needing a win to qualify for the play-offs.
“The first thing to say is Virat’s business as usual, as he always is. There’s enough of the public and the nation’s attention on him, and he doesn’t want any more of that. He’s ambitious about what we can achieve this year with RCB and that’s what he does,” said Bobat during a pre-match press conference.
“He should be incredibly proud of what he’s done as a Test player for India. RCB as a franchise, we are all incredibly proud of what every one of our players does for India, but in particular him. To play 120 plus Test matches and to score nearly 10,000 runs is no mean feat. Also as a captain, his record, 60 per cent win percentage or something like that as captain, again, no mean feat,” he added.
The Englishman was confident that the fans would continue to shower Kohli with affection and respect whenever he entered the Chinnaswamy stadium.
“I’m sure the fans will show him lots of love this week when they see him again. Just to go back to where I started, he’s business as usual, we all are. He’s spoken to a few of us about things in the last few weeks, but you know what he’s like, he’s pretty clear on what he wants to do,” he noted.
Kohli retired from Tests with 9230 runs in 210 innings and stands fourth on the all-time charts among Indian batters, only behind the legendary trio of Sachin Tendulkar (15,921), Rahul Dravid (13,265), and Sunil Gavaskar (10,122) with 9230 runs at a 46.85 average.
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