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NEW DELHI: Royal Challengers Bengaluru director of cricket Mo Bobat expressed admiration for Virat Kohli’s “ridiculous” consistency over 18 years, saying the least the management could do was build a championship winning side around a player who has devoted his youth and prime to the franchise.
RCB head into the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League as defending champions after lifting their maiden title last year, ending an 18 year wait.
Speaking about Kohli’s stature within the team, Bobat said on the 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 the cornerstone of RCB
Kohli has remained the backbone of Royal Challengers Bengaluru since 2008, becoming the IPL’s highest run scorer for a single franchise with over 9,000 runs, including eight centuries.
His most remarkable season came in 2016 when he amassed a record breaking 973 runs.
On assembling a title winning squad around him, 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."
The captaincy call and long term vision
RCB clinched the title under Rajat Patidar’s leadership, after he replaced Faf du Plessis ahead of IPL 2025.
Explaining the reasoning behind that major decision, 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 and 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."
Back to back titles the new target
Looking ahead, Bobat made it clear that the team is not content with just one trophy.
"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 conversation shifted to leadership continuity, Bobat revealed that both he and head coach Andy Flower had discussed the transition with Kohli.
"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 maybe 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.'"
(With PTI Inputs)
