Royal Challengers dare to dream again...this time with good reason Premium

KL Rahul's uncharacteristic celebration, RCB's history with Kohli, and RCB's strong start in the 2025 IPL season.

Having whipped a full toss from Yash Dayal nonchalantly behind square, he followed the path of the ball unblinkingly, knowing from the moment it made contact with the bat where it was headed. Still, typical of the man, he waited for confirmation. As the ball screamed over the boundary buntings, over the fence and into the stands where a dozen hands reached out to grab it, he drew a circle on the ground, plonked his bat in it and let out a roar. All atypical. Then came the piece de resistance: ‘This is my ground.’

Much like his illustrious namesake from the same city, K.L. Rahul is all about control. Of his emotions, as much as anything else. And much like Rahul Dravid did at the Eden Gardens in 2001 during that Test against Australia on reaching his hundred – he whipped off his helmet and made repeated pointed gestures in the direction of the commentary box – the younger Rahul let his hair down at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium a little over a fortnight back after hauling his latest franchise, Delhi Capitals, over the finish line against his former, and first, franchise, Royal Challengers Bengaluru.

Only Rahul will be able to spread light on his uncharacteristic celebration at getting the job done. One of the popular theories is that he was ‘giving it back’ to RCB, who had let him go unceremoniously several years back, and who didn’t make more than a token attempt to bring him back even though he was very much a successful son of the soil and the Bengaluru franchise had little-to-token ‘local’ representation.

RCB. It’s a name synonymous with Virat Kohli, much like Chennai Super Kings are with Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Mumbai Indians with Rohit Sharma. All champions who have led the country with distinction, the last two having led their respective franchises too to a record five IPL titles apiece. And yet, of this trio, only Kohli has stayed with the same franchise all these years. Since the start of the league in 2008. Forget this trio, in IPL history, no other player has represented the same side for 18 years on the bounce. Rohit started his career with Deccan Chargers, with whom he won the title in 2009, while Dhoni played for Rising Pune Supergiant(s) in the two years (2016 and 2017) when CSK were banned.

It’s therefore inevitable that RCB will be identified with Kohli, and vice-versa. True, in the very early days when T20 cricket itself was in its infancy and the IPL was a new-born whose potential was a mystery, such worthies as Dravid and Anil Kumble played for, and led the franchise. Kumble, who took over mid-season in South Africa in 2009 when Kevin Pietersen returned to England on international duty, even shepherded the outfit to the final, where RCB succumbed to Rohit’s  Chargers, led by Adam Gilchrist. But for the modern generation, Dravid and Kumble are more easily identifiable as national head coaches and analysts than  RCB alumni because, after all, public memory is short, fickle, unpredictable.

Unless, of course, you are talking Kohli and RCB. Fans in Bengaluru, indeed fans of RCB anywhere in the country and beyond – and there are millions, let’s not make any mistake – take offence, umbrage even, when one points out that for all of Kohli’s ‘genius’, he is yet to wrap his hands around the title. He was captain for nearly a decade, he had at his disposal some of the greatest white-ball batters of all-time – including Chris Gayle, A.B. de Villiers, Shane Watson and Yuvraj Singh – and still doesn’t have any silverware to show, one reminds them. What were the rest doing, they shoot back. How much can one man do?

Hard to fathom