Virat Kohli reminisced about his face-off with Ishant Sharma during the inaugural IPL game in 2008. Kohli, fresh from winning the U-19 World Cup, felt the pressure as he walked out to bat at the Eden Gardens chasing a massive target. Despite facing Ishant numerous times in the nets, Kohli found him intimidating in the high-pressure atmosphere of the game.
Ishant, who had just returned from a successful series in Australia, kept sledging Kohli throughout his first over. Kohli responded by telling him, “side mein aa mein tereko batata hu” in a light-hearted manner. However, Kohli was eventually dismissed by Ashok Dinda after scoring just one run off five balls as RCB suffered a heavy defeat.
Since then, Kohli has had a successful career in both international cricket and the IPL. He is the highest run-scorer in the IPL with 8168 runs in 256 matches for RCB and has the second-most fifty-plus scores in the tournament. The incident with Ishant remains a memorable moment from Kohli’s early days in the IPL.
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