RCB Bold Diaries: Virat Kohli opens up about AB de Villiers not being at RCB anymore

There aren’t too many bromances in the IPL that have been as strong as the bond between AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli. While the latter has relinquished captaincy, de Villiers decided to call it a day after the 2021 season. It truly felt like the end of an era.

How much does Virat Kohli miss AB de Villiers? How strange does it feel to not have someone who has been around for the last 11 years not be in the dressing room anymore? “It’s very strange,” said Virat Kohli. “I clearly remember when he decided to finally call it a day. He sent me a voice note. I still remember we were coming back after the world cup from Dubai, and I got a voice note. And I opened it and I listened to it. Anushka (Sharma) was with me, and I looked at her like this, and my face fell. She was like ‘What?’ I showed her the message, I showed her the WhatsApp chat and the voice note from AB de Villiers. And the first thing she said was ‘Don’t tell me'. She knew.”

“I kind of had the impression or I kind of was guessing it in the last IPL. Because he kept telling me - our rooms were next to each other, and we would walk the same way and then disperse - and every time I walked to my room, he’d see me outside, he’d be like ‘I wanna see you for coffee one of these days'. And I kept getting nervous; I was like ‘I’m not sitting with you, I think there’s something coming,’ and he said ‘No man, there’s nothing. I just wanna sit and have a chat with you, it’s been a while’, and he never speaks like that, we interact all the time. So I knew something’s brewing up,” an emotional Virat Kohli recalled.

“It’s a very strange feeling. I got very emotional, and the voice note was very emotional for me when he said, ‘Look, I don’t have it in me anymore’. I’ve shared so many moments with him - highs and lows - he’s been right next to me through thick and thin. I was actually thinking about it the other day. If we manage to win the title in the coming seasons - this one, next one, whatever it is - I would be very emotional thinking about him first. Rather than what I would experience after such hard work of so many years, I would actually think of him, how much it’d still mean to him, watching from home. He’s a special human being, he’s touched everyone’s lives here. We can all vouch for that, he’s been amazing. I don’t think there’s one person here who can say ‘AB has not contributed to my life in some way or the other’,” Virat Kohli opened up.