IPL 2023: Virat Kohli opens about his 'life changing' moment and it's not India captaincy

The highly anticipated 2023 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is fast approaching. This year's tournament promises to be a special one, as it marks the return of the original home-and-away format after a four-year hiatus. The past three editions of the world's richest franchise cricket league were held in the United Arab Emirates or at limited venues due to the COVID-19 pandemic and logistical challenges. However, with the pandemic under control, players will finally have the opportunity to showcase their skills in front of their local fans.

This year's season will begin on March 31, and the Virat Kohli-led Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) will compete for their first IPL crown, as they have in the previous 15 editions. Although participating in all 15 seasons, the Bengaluru-based team has yet to win an IPL title. This year, the team hopes to put on a good performance on the field and put an end to the long wait.

Virat opened up about the life-changing experience in an interview with RCB ahead of the start of the IPL, the video of which was shared by the franchise's official Twitter handle on Thursday. And, to everyone's surprise, that moment had nothing to do with cricket, but rather with his personal life. He recalled how things improved once he met his actor wife, Anushka Sharma.

He said that after meeting Anushka, he saw an aspect of life that he had never seen before. He claims that after dating Anushka, he changed drastically. He saw things differently and grew to be more open to and welcoming of new ideas. He also discussed his father's death and its aftermath.

"When my father passed away, that was more like, my outlook towards things changed, but my life didn’t change as such. Life around was same as before. The incident gave me a lot of resilience, a lot of focus on what I want to do in life, and a lot of motivation to realise my dream, but it wasn’t life-changing. I was still playing cricket, I was still doing what I had to do, and the environment was quite similar", said Virat.

Virat talks about how his life changed after meeting Anushka Sharma on @eatsurenow presents #RCBPodcast! #PlayBold @imVkohli @danishsait pic.twitter.com/90JHI5ESkr

— Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets) March 9, 2023

"I would say a life-changing moment would be when I met Anushka, because I saw a different side of life. It wasn’t similar to my environment; it was a different perspective, a different point of view, so that’s what is life-changing. Because when you fall in love, you start processing those changes within you as well, because you have to move together. So, to do that, you have to open yourself up; you need to accept a lot of things, and that for me was life-changing," the former Indian skipper added.

Virat married Anushka in December 2017, and their daughter Vamika was born in January 2021.

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