Long Before IPL, The Forgotten Story Of Virat Kohli's T20 Debut
Virat Kohli made his domestic T20 debut for Delhi at 18 in an experimental BCCI tournament, scoring 35 off 26 balls on a challenging pitch that barely had a spectator.
Long before the inaugural edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) held an experimental domestic T20 tournament. An 18-year-old Virat Kohli arrived to bat for Delhi against Himachal Pradesh at the historic Indira Gandhi Stadium in Una. While there isn't a stadium in the world that would have a single empty seat at present, if Kohli is out to bat today, the case was completely different 19 years ago. Fans could barely be spotted as Kohli, a future legend, went on to make his debut in the shortest format.
Playing on a tricky pitch against senior domestic bowlers, Delhi lost early wickets. Kohli walked in at No. 3 and played a methodical, anchor-style innings, scoring 35 off 26 balls on a surface where almost everyone else struggled to score runs freely.
What made the game significant wasn't the scoreline, but his approach towards the game. While other young hitters in the tournament were trying to clear the ropes, Kohli realised T20 cricket on tricky Indian pitches wouldn't be won by blind slogging. Rather, it required heavy running between the wickets and finding the gaps.
Kohli ended the match as the second-highest scorer for his team, behind Shikhar Dhawan, who scored 38 runs off 28 balls. Delhi, however, were bowled out for 136 runs, with Himachal Pradesh's Nischal Gaur picking up 5 wickets for 28 runs in his quota of 4 overs.
Chasing the target of 137 runs, Himachal lost just three wickets as they overhauled Delhi's total in 19 overs. Sandeep Sharma, the team's skipper, scored 45 off 44 balls, emerging as the top-scoring batter for the hosts.
When the inaugural IPL draft took place a year later in 2008, Delhi's franchise - then known as the Delhi Daredevils - passed on draft-eligible local kid Kohli to pick bowler Pradeep Sangwan based on U-19 hype. Royal Challengers Bangalore snapped Kohli up for a modest draft price, arguably because their talent scouts had tracked his adaptability and the ability to deliver in different conditions.
The rest, as they say, is history!
Virat Kohli