Remembering how Virat Kohli ended up at RCB after Delhi Daredevils picked Pradeep Sangwan

Virat Kohli and Royal Challengers Bengaluru remains one of the most enduring partnerships of the Indian Premier League with the star set to play in his 18th season with the Karnataka-based franchise. But not many will remember that had things turned out even slightly differently 18 years ago, Kohli would have ended up in a different team rather than in RCB.
Kohli’s tryst with RCB started in the draft in IPL 2008, which was a special event held after the IPL auction just for members of India’s U19 World Cup-winning team. Kohli as the captain of that side was likely to end up at the Delhi Daredevils, who had the first pick in the draft.
“We were all in Malaysia for the U-19 World Cup. I remember the day when the draft was happening and the U-19 dynamic was different as we very rightly had a money cap. That was the only time when I saw a restriction on how much could you be picked for, if you haven’t played for India. I remember even that moment for us was so amazing. The amount that we were picked for, when they revealed, we were like, we couldn’t believe it, we went absolutely crazy,” Kohli had said a few years back in a podcast with RCB.

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“There was one conversation where I heard from people that the Delhi team was interested to go after me but the dynamics of their team turned out to be such that they went for Pradeep Sangwan – who was a left-arm seamer, amazing bowler, at that time he was our best bowler in U-19. So Delhi decided to go for him because they wanted their bowling strengthened and RCB picked me.”
Delhi had opted for Sangwan over Kohli because they already had picked players like Virender Sehwag, Shikhar Dhawan, Gautam Gambhir, Dinesh Karthik and Manoj Tiwari besides international stars like Tillakaratne Dilshan and AB de Villiers. This is why they had chosen to miss Kohli.
Kohli had said: “In hindsight, I feel it was such an important moment in my life. I didn’t realize it then but now when I look back, things could have been very different to what they are now. I would not have it any other way than this.”