'Side mein aa mein tereko batata hu': Virat Kohli recalls getting sledged by Ishant Sharma in his IPL debut match

Virat Kohli recently reminisced about his banter with Ishant Sharma during the inaugural match of the Indian Premier League in 2008, where the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) faced off against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). Kohli revealed that Ishant, riding high on the confidence gained from an Australia tour and sporting a new hairstyle, attempted to rattle him with sledging, but Kohli gave it right back, emphasizing that it was all in good fun.

Brendon McCullum's incredible 158 helped KKR set a lofty target of 222/3 in the match, which was played at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. RCB was bowled out for just 82 runs after faltering in response. Rahul Dravid, the captain of the RCB, was dismissed by Ishant in the second over, making an early impression. Kohli, who came in at number three, took a couple deliveries off Ishant, but Ashok Dinda was able to dismiss him for only one run off five balls.

“He (Ishant) was sledging me, like, seriously," Kohli said in an interview with JioHotstar on the show ’18 calling 18′. “He had just come from Australia, got a new hair color, he was a bit of a ‘star’. I said, Side mein aa tereko batata hu mai (Come to the side and I’ll tell you). But it was all fun and games. There was a lot of pressure in this game, I felt, because I had never played in front of a packed stadium before…. I was really, really nervous. I still remember I was marking my guard and looking at the ground, that there are so many people there," he added.

Kohli highlighted that this match was a turning point in his career, giving him a deep insight into the incredible pressure and impact that the crowd can have.

“I had never played in a crowd like that or in an environment like that," he said of the Chinnaswamy Stadium. “But the most interesting part for me, which I have never spoken about, is that Ishant and I played all our cricket together. I had played him a lot, but in that match when he was bowling to me, I felt like this is a different level of bowler bowling to me. That was the pressure. Now you understand what the environment can do, I mean if I play him in the nets I won’t be intimidated. But there I felt like I won’t be able to hit against Ishant because of the environment, the pressure, that one wicket was down. That’s when I understood what pressure was and what the capacity of the environment was," he said.

Kohli’s RCB has had a solid start to the IPL 2025 season, winning three out of their four matches and currently sitting in third place on the points table. Meanwhile, Ishant is now with the Gujarat Titans, who are tied on points with RCB but hold a higher position thanks to their superior net run rate.

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