Not everyone is as blessed as Sachin Tendulkar. Probably the biggest cricket of all time had to wait 22 years for the World Championship. Cristiano Ronaldo, who dazzled fans around the world, may have not yet reached the final silver. Johan Cruyff, George Best, Paolo Maldini. Sport was often kind to its brightest stars. Talent does not guarantee trophies. You earn everything in sport and sometimes it’s not enough.
Brian Lara never lifted the World Cup. Gianluigi Buffon never won the Champions League. In team sport, your individual brilliance can only carry you so far.
For Virat Kohli, IPL was the elusive white whale. He won the ODI World Cup at the age of 22. The masters trophy followed in the 24th and eventually in the career of the crowning Renaissance added Kohli the World Championship T20 and twice the champions in the last 12 months. Yet one dream remains unfulfilled.
For more than 18 years, Indian Premier League has become his undeniable boy from the poster, his heart rhythm and face. Yet the trophy avoided him. He played three finals. Scored over 8,500 runs. In one season he even recorded 973 runs. And despite all this, he appeared every night with unrivaled energy and played every IPL game as if it were the last of his career. But silver? It never came home.
And yet he’s here again. On the verge.
On Tuesday evening, Royal Challengers Bengalur will take over in Ahmedabad in the IPL 2025 Kings final. Both franchises chase their first title, but for Kohl it’s more than that. It is a chance to fill one sore gap in a career that defined the era.
Final IPL 2025: When and where to look
17 years, many heartfruit
Little franchise promised so much and supplied only RCB. They built some of the greatest names ever seen the game. Their fanbase is huge, loyal and emotional. But their heritage? One built more on turbulence than titles.
The dreaded “C-glare” followed for almost two decades. They did the finals. They finished the top of the table. They went to win. But every time the stage grew, they shrunk.
Take 2016. Kohli was in the form of his life and scored almost mythical runs 973. Together with AB de Villiers was inviolable. And yet they lost the finals from the winning position.
Since 2020, RCB has been one of the most convenient parties of the league and is a play -off year after year. Yet, the IPL shining trophy remains in the stormy shelves of the M Chinnaswamy stadium. It is a striking paradox that the Karnataka team, a state known for champions and sides of the champions, tolerated such an extended and painful drought of the title.
Something feels different this season.
For the first time in nine years they ended up in the first two. Their campaign was not only based on individual brilliance, but tactical sharpness, intelligent recruitment and peace they had missed before.
And in the heart of it all? Kohli. Again. But this time he carries the whole weight on his shoulders.
RCB reimaginated
Can captain Rajat Patidar help stop drought iPL RCB? (PTI photos)
RCB in 2025 is no longer a show for one person. Virat Kohli has another stunning season: 614 runs affected by nearly 150, the only dough that exceeded 600 runs in five different IPL campaigns. But what has actually changed this team is how they have grown around.
His introductory partner, Phil Salt, was a pre -season master. During the preliminary planning, Dinesh Karthik, now the mentor of the team, was visibly impressed by the bravery Salt’s Boundary Hitting. RCB walked in, secured the Englishman and paired him with Kohli to create one of the most perfect duo of the season. Salt scored 387 runs in 12 games at a hit of 175, which often made it possible to anchor and explode at will.
Four other doughs have passed 200 runs for the season at a rare medical consistency show for franchise, which was charged with relying on its top three.
Bowling also found teeth. Josh Hazlewood led the pace of attack with calm and class, while Bhuvneshwar Kumar has a quiet pressure with a new ball and in death. Yash Dayal threw himself with major breakthroughs.
And then there’s a spindle department. The RCB only picked up the eyebrow by choosing Pandy and the young spinner Suyash Sharma. But it’s paid. Suyash who showed the flashes of his brilliance in the league phase, It turned out to be their winner of the match in qualifying 1 against the Pandjab Kings. When was the last time we saw how the Indian pitch got off when it mattered for RCB?
We told you, RCB from 2025 feels different.
Deserves it: AB de Villiers
Will it be a virat Kohi in Ahmedabad? (PTI photos)
There is one voice in comments and cricket circles with a mixture of admiration and affection when it comes to kohli: Ab de villlliers.
“You don’t deserve anything in sport.
“After he was there from the beginning with the RCB. I think he’s part of the furniture. And it would be really nice to see him lift the trophy and almost finish almost perfect career.
“He worked hard, changed his game, changed his habits with respect to nutrition and performance. He leads his performances and his behavior. It’s a final cricket. It deserves it, man.”
Few people understand what Kohl gave RCB as De Villiers does. They both shared a bond in and off the field, which defined the RCB generation. If Kohli lifts the trophy in Ahmedabad, you can be sure that AB who flew down into the city will encourage loudest.
Closure, not farewell
This is probably not over. Kohli, who left tests and T20is, has enough gas in his tank to be a RCB poster for at least another 2-3 years.
But opportunities like this do not come often. To finish the final with such a rounded, in the form of a group may not soon happen. The stars equalized – form, fitness, depth, guidance. It’s not a swan song, but it has it as a defective chapter in his story.
Kohli won two ICC trophies last year. His white ball record was recontextualized. The only thing left is that it is. IPL title, with a team that never left, in a tournament that helped define.
Is 18 reserved for No. 18?
And in all this is a beautiful irony.
IPL is one of the most radical inventions of cricket, franchise -controlled, entertainment of the first, billion dollar spectacle. It redefined how the cricket is watching, playing, consuming. It is the final expression of modern sport.
Yet a man who symbolizes that modernity, who built the league personality year after year, has never held a trophy.
Virat Kohli did everything an icon of this age could do. However, there is a strange, most famous cricket that IPL will never win. STATE. Meme. Punchline.
High pressure
On Tuesday evening in Ahmedabad, two teams will chase their first IPL title. For PBKS it would be history with Shreyas Iyer, who this year sings his own back song.
For RCB it would be a release of 18 years of sorrow. Trophie, which has just been out of reach for too long. Career, almost complete and waits for its missing page.
“Season 18 belongs to No. 18”. Certainly, a marketing dream, but also a poetic reminder that sometimes fate and numbers dance synchronization.
Stay updated IPL 2025 With India today! Gain Matches, team units, Hedgeand the latest Table of IPL points for CSK, Me, RCB, Krot, SRH, Lsg, Dc, Gt, BKSand RR. Plus, watch the best applicants for IPL Orange and Purple cap. Don’t miss a moment!
Published:
Akshay Ramesh
Published on:
June 3, 2025
