"You rarely see such a commitment at a franchise level" - Aakash Chopra lauds Virat Kohli's loyalty to RCB
Aakash Chopra has picked Virat Kohli's loyalty towards the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) as one of his defining traits.
Kohli was picked by RCB in a draft ahead of the inaugural season of the Indian Premier League. He has played for the franchise since then, amassing 7263 runs, the most in IPL history, at a strike rate of 130.02 in 229 innings.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra picked Kohli's match-winning ability, especially in run chases, and the fitness standards he has set as some of the traits that define him.
He also chose the former RCB captain's loyalty to the franchise as another of his unique attributes, elaborating (14:30):
"He is royalty for RCB. Loyalty is royalty is what I say. If you are loyal, you are royal, and he is royal because he stuck with one team. It's not that he never got an offer or was not asked to come into the auction because nothing was happening there (with RCB)."
"He is a mighty player, scores a lot of runs, and breaks batting records year after year but they don't win. This player doesn't like losing. However, he kept his loyalty to RCB. He says that until he plays, he will play for them only. You rarely see such a commitment at a franchise level," the former India opener added.
Chopra observed that Kohli and MS Dhoni are the only two players who have stuck with their original franchises, with the latter also playing for the Rising Pune Supergiant for a couple of years in between when the Chennai Super Kings were banned.
He added that Bengaluru has virtually become the Delhiite's first home.
"His aggressive captaincy" - Aakash Chopra on another trait that defines Virat Kohli
Aakash Chopra picked Virat Kohli's aggressive Test captaincy as another of his defining characteristics (12:50):
"His aggressive captaincy, especially in Test cricket. He walked the talk. It's easy to talk about an aggressive brand of cricket but difficult to play that way. For that, you need to play five bowlers, which means there is pressure on the batters."
Chopra added that the former India captain is willing to play five bowlers and put himself under pressure. He explained:
"Due to that, India never played more than four bowlers for a long time because the captain is generally a batter. Virat Kohli changed that template.
"He realized that to win abroad, you just don't need to score runs but take 20 wickets as well. He was ready to put pressure on himself."
Chopra highlighted that Kohli looked into the eyes of the opposition and said that his team had come to fight.
He acknowledged that India lost a few games as well, as the batters didn't deliver but observed that a draw was never an option.