Bengaluru: Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s director of cricket Mo Bobat expressed his awe at Virat Kohli’s “ridiculous” record over 18 years, stating that providing a championship-winning side was the least the think tank could do for the superstar who has given his youth and prime to the IPL team.
RCB will enter the upcoming IPL as defending champions, having won their maiden title last season after a long wait of 18 years.
Speaking about Kohli’s stature within the franchise, Bobat said on RCB Podcast, “Virat Kohli, obviously, I think he’ll forever be the icon and the hero of this team. I don’t think that’s going to go away, and he deserves that. His track record is incredible.”
“I remember at one point last season seeing his stats when he got to however many runs it was — close to 9,000 runs — 18 years wearing just one shirt. That’s 500 runs a season.
“It’s actually ridiculous. For seven years or something like that, some players would be happy with a 500-run season. He averages 500 runs a season for 18 years. It’s actually ridiculous. So, you can’t ignore that.”
Kohli has been the cornerstone of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru since 2008, establishing himself as the IPL’s highest scorer with over 9,000 runs for a single team, including eight centuries.
His standout performance was in 2016, setting a record of 973 runs in a single season.
On building a champion team around Kohli, Bobat said, “The best thing Andy and I can do for him is give him a championship-winning team. And he’s certainly at the stage of that career where he wants to keep winning things.
“So it didn’t take much buy-in from someone like him. He wants good players around him because he wants to win. He’s a winner.”
RCB won the title under Rajat Patidar’s captaincy, who took over the responsibility from Faf du Plessis before the start of IPL 2025.
Detailing the thought process behind the leadership call, Bobat said: “We spent a lot of time thinking about that captaincy decision. I don’t mind saying in my career, there aren’t that many decisions that I’ve thought about as long and as deeply as that one. And (the) thinking started in the season before.
“We were very blessed to have someone like Faf (du Plessis) as our captain. Everybody knows what a champion person Faf is. He was still a player doing the business at that stage as well. We could have easily just rolled him over and continued with Faf, having built a strong connection, relationship and trust with him.
“But sport is pretty ruthless. You’ve got to look at the reality of his age and stage. And again, I mentioned earlier, the big auction gave us a chance to do a bit of a reset.
“We felt like (having) an Indian captain was really important. It’s an Indian competition, so having an Indian captain I think is really important.”
Speaking about the upcoming season, Bobat said RCB are chasing back-to-back titles.
“We’re not defending champions. We’re not defending anything. We might be current champions, but I don’t want us to have a mindset of us defending anything.
“We’re attacking. We’re chasing something else. We’re chasing back-to-back wins.”
When the discussion turned to long-term leadership vision, Bobat hinted at Patidar continuing as captain in the near future, adding that both he and head coach Andy Flower have taken the former RCB skipper Kohli into confidence.
“Andy and I met him (Kohli) in London not long after the 2024 season and talked about that. He’s always ready to step forward and lead. He doesn’t need a second invitation.
“But we spoke at that stage about how this decision is not just about us three as people. It’s about RCB more broadly as a franchise. Its leadership may be even beyond us. We might not be here, and Rajat might be continuing as captain. So it’s a moment in time where we have to take that responsibility quite seriously.”
“The easy thing would have been to say, ‘Virat, do you mind filling in and doing captaincy?’ But then you’re just kicking a decision down the road. At some point, we can’t be dependent on Virat all the time.
“Virat’s a bright guy. He got it really quickly. He said, ‘Let’s think about some of these other individuals. But if you need someone, then obviously I can do it.'”
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