"I kept staring at him for 5 minutes" - RCB player Saurav Chauhan opens up on 1st meeting with Virat Kohli in IPL 2024

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) batter Saurav Chauhan recently shared the details of his first interaction with Virat Kohli during the IPL 2024. It was Chauhan's first IPL season, which is why he was a little nervous when he saw Kohli in the RCB dressing room for the first time.

During an appearance on Ishan Joshi's podcast, Chauhan shared his experience of playing for RCB earlier this year. The 24-year-old played three matches, scoring 18 runs at a strike rate of 120.

Although Chauhan's debut was not so great on the field, he made a lot of memories off the field. Recalling his first meeting with Virat Kohli, Saurav Chauhan said (via Ishan Joshi's YouTube channel):

"I always wanted to play with him. If you see, he was batting in the middle when I came out to bat on my IPL debut. It was a completely different feeling." (17:30)

"Just one or two days before I left for IPL, I had been thinking about what I'll do when I meet him, I even thought about the things I'll discuss with him," he added.

Chauhan said he was so nervous upon seeing Kohli that he just kept gazing at him. Kohli himself walked up to him and started the conversation.

"So, the first time I met him was in the dressing room. He came and sat at his place. I kept staring at him for 5 minutes. He saw me and even smiled at me, but I kept gazing at him. Then, he came to meet me. So, at that time, I was like 'Wow, Virat has started the conversation with me.' I was over the moon," Chauhan said.

"It took me 2 weeks to prepare myself to have a conversation with Virat Kohli" - Saurav Chauhan

In the same interview, Saurav Chauhan mentioned that it took him two weeks to mentally prepare for in-depth conversations with Virat Kohli. However, once he broke the ice with the ace batter, they became good friends and also had a lot of fun with other RCB youngsters.

"It took me 2 weeks to prepare myself to have a conversation with Virat Kohli. Finally, when I spoke with him, he was the complete opposite of what we generally see about him on TV and social media. He made so comfortable. In fact, he spent more time with us youngsters, and we all had a lot of fun," Saurav Chauhan said.

The IPL 2025 Mega Auction retention deadline is fast approaching. It will be interesting to see if RCB retain Saurav Chauhan as an uncapped player for the upcoming season.