Saturday night’s IPL 2023 match between Delhi Capitals (DC) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) will be ‘homecoming’ for sorts for former captain Virat Kohli. The clash will take place at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, the home ground for Kohli and even has a ‘Virat Kohli Pavilion’ at the venue.


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Ahead of this much-anticipated clash, Kohli and his Bollywood star wife Anushka Sharma have already arrived in the Capital and even visited the French Embassy on Wednesday. The RCB social media account shared a ‘behind-the-scenes’ video after speaking to Kohli’s childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma, childhood friend Shalaj Sondhi and his mother Neha Sondhi.


Virat Kohli and Shalaj Sondhi were both part of the both part of the Rajkumar Sharma Academy in New Delhi. Neha Sondhi recalled in the video how Kohli had once told her that he will marry a ‘heroine’ someday.


“One time there was a match at the Madan Lal Academy and there was a big film or ad poster outside the venue. Virat saw that picture and told me, ‘Dekhna main ek din itna bada aadmi banooga aur kisi heroine se shaadi karoonga’,” Neha Sondhi said in the video.


WATCH Virat Kohli’s childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma, childhood friend Shalaj speak about RCB batter HERE…



Kohli’s childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma recalled the day the youngster had come to train under him almost 25 years back. “On May 30, 1998, he came to me with his brother and his father. Within a few days we could see that he was very different from others, very active, very hyper and very naughty guy. He was very determined and dedicated, he wanted to dominate from Day 1. He had tremendous self belief that I can do anything. Shalaj and Virat were very thick friends from my academy,” Rajkumar Sharma said.


Shalaj’s mother goes on to share Kohli’s love for ‘aloo’ sabzi while training at the academy. “Virat ko chote aloo bohot pasand the. Tiffin bhar ke wo lekar jaati thi. Tiffin lekar bhaag jaata tha and sab bachche uske piche,” Neha Sondhi said.


While Kohli’s friend Shalaj said that the former RCB captain loved to eat at the Chinese food van outside the academy call ‘Chuk-Chuk Mail’. “Virat and me used to have Momo, chowmein and burgers at a Chinese van called ‘Chuk-Chuk Mail’ outside the academy. We used to have competitions who can eat more,” Shalaj said.


Kohli will be playing the first IPL 2023 match since his bust-up with Lucknow Super Giants mentor Gautam Gambhir in Lucknow earlier this week. Both Kohli and Gambhir were subsequently fined 100 per cent of their match fees. Kohli was born and brought up in West Delhi area of Vikaspuri and has now moved base to live in Mumbai.