Virat Kohli: Why did Delhi turn their back on Virat in the first season of IPL? Virender Sehwag revealed..

Former Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) captain and star batsman Virat Kohli is in great form. He is also the second-highest run scorer in the current season. Meanwhile, former Indian batsman Virender Sehwag has shared an old story related to IPL 2008. He revealed why Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals) did not buy King Kohli.

Ignoring Virat, Delhi bet on this player

IPL started in 2008. Virat Kohli was a part of the Indian Under-19 team at that time. He was included in the draft, but Delhi made left-arm bowler Pradeep Sangwan a part of the team instead of Virat. At that time, the command of Delhi Daredevils was in the hands of Virender Sehwag. He has now spoken openly on this.

Sehwag told the reason for not selecting Virat.

Talking to Cricbuzz, Sehwag said - I was the captain who did not choose Virat Kohli and chose Pradeep Sangwan. He was not even on the auction table. We already had them - I was there, Gautam Gambhir, Shikhar Dhawan, Dilshan - we had a lot of top-order openers. Then there was AB de Villiers as well. So we already had a lot of batsmen, but we didn't have bowlers. Our thinking was, let's pick a bowler and a left-arm bowler to bring some variety. So maybe that was a good choice - Mahesh and Pradeep Sangwan. These were two young bowlers at that time. In the first three years we played, both of them did well for us.

Virat became RCB's 'poster boy'

The first season of IPL was not very special for Sangwan. He took only five wickets in seven innings. However, in the second season, he made a strong comeback and took 15 wickets in 13 innings to take Delhi to the semi-finals. Sangwan played a total of three seasons for Delhi in the IPL and took 29 wickets. On the other hand, Virat Kohli became the highest run-scorer of this tournament. King Kohli, who has captained RCB, is the only player who has played for the same team in 18 seasons.

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