"She's spent way more time than I have in Bangalore" - Virat Kohli reveals Anushka Sharma's RCB connection
Former Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) captain Virat Kohli has revealed that, like him, his wife Anushka Sharma also shares a special connection with Bengaluru, the franchise's home city.
Speaking on the "RCB Podcast", a trailer clip of which was unveiled on Wednesday, Kohli said Anushka has spent "way more time" than him in the city. He stated that the famous actress grew up in Bengaluru and RCB's on-field performances impacted her too.
Kohli also said that in terms of their relationship, him captaining RCB and spending time here was always a plus and felt like "things coming together" for them because it gave Anushka a chance to relive her childhood. The 33-year-old said:
"She's a Bangalore girl. She's grownup there. She's spent way more time than I have in Bangalore, not many people know this. And she has a special connection with the city already. So obviously she feels very happy that I am playing for RCB and my commitment is always going to be for this franchise and for this city... She obviously can feel the sadness when we don't do well as well. And as I said, there's a special connect with Bangalore already so for her it was just things coming together in the most perfect manner that I happened to play in the city and she gets to go back to Bangalore and relive her special memories of growing up there. And she absoultely loves it."
Speaking about his own association with the city, the former Indian captain said it had a "strong impact" on his life. Kohli remarked that whenever he comes to Bengaluru, he feels at home. He added:
"It's always had a strong impact on my life starting from the time we used to come to Bangalore for the Under-14, Under-15 NCA camps and we used to be there for 2-2.5 months at one stretch so we used to explore quite a bit of Bangalore even then. The city has a very different feel to any other place in India. It is just when you arrive, you land at the airport and you are driving to the hotel, you just feel like you've come home. That's a very difficult feeling to get in a city that you haven't been born and grown up in and you just go there for a period in the year."
Interestingly, Kohli's long-time friend and former RCB teammate AB de Villiers has also recently talked about getting a "familiar" vibe in Bengaluru.
"Batting with Virat Kohli is very easy" - Devdutt Padikkal
🏾
What an absolute privilege it is to be playing for the @RCBTweets
Proud of the way we fought.
I would like to thank everyone for their love and support throughout the season. ❤️
We’ll come back stronger. 👊🏾
#PlayBold https://t.co/58WoeiM7T6
In the same clip, Kohli's former opening partner, Devdutt Padikkal, also talked about his experience of batting with the legendary batter. Padikkal said it's "very easy" to partner with Kohli because all the attention is on the former skipper. The southpaw added that the opportunity to share his knowledge with Kohli in the middle is "priceless".
The youngster explained:
"Batting with Virat is very easy because all the attention is on him and I just feel like the pressure is off me completely... Then obviously he's such an incredible batsman, so much experience, so much knowledge of the game, [now former] captain of India, won the World Cup, he's done everything there's to do in cricket. So to have someone like that at the non-striker's end talking you through your innings is just priceless. And as a youngster coming to the team and playing with him straightaway - you couldn't ask for anything more."
Kohli will be back in action in the upcoming ODI series between India and West Indies. Padikkal, on the other hand, will go under the hammer at the IPL 2022 Auction on February 12-13.