After India won the 2008 U-19 World Cup, Virat Kohli was in the mix of getting picked up for IPL. Delhi Daredevils, instead of taking the hone star Kohli, went in with upcoming fast bowler Pradeep Sangwan, that surprised one and all. Royal Challengers Bangalore then went ahead and bagged the current Indian skipper.
Former IPL COO Sunder Raman has explained that why DD didn’t opt for Kohli in the first place.
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“Interestingly, that was also the year India had won the U-19 World Cup, just a month before the auction. They were captained by Virat Kohli and we decided to keep a separate draft for the U-19 players a few days after the auction. Surprise, surprise! Virat Kohli was not the first player to be picked in the draft,” Raman told Gaurav Kapur on the podcast ‘22 Yarns’.
“Delhi passed on him, actually, and picked Pradeep Sangwan instead, because they said they didn’t need another batsman. And they didn’t actually, they had Virender Sehwag and AB de Villiers. They were right in their thinking, but RCB picked him up and the rest, as they say, is history,” he added.
Kohli is one of the most successful batsman in the IPL and has scored 5412 runs in 169 innings at an average of 37. That includes six tons as well. On the other hand Sangwan played 39 matches in the IPL while picking up 35 wickets at an economy of 8.79. He was also banned for 15 months by the BCCI after testing positive for a banned substance.