Royal Challengers Bangalore's return to the Chinnaswamy for the first time since the pandemic lockdown has been much anticipated. The buzz around Virat Kohli's return to his stomping grounds in Bangalore has hogged conversation before the start of RCB's season. Kohli opened up on his childhood fascination with trump cards, impulse buying of expensive toys in his earlier days, and also his sporting role models in the latest chat with RCB.
Impulsive buying replaced with being practical
Cricketers are known for their love of being throttle junkies. Former Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni is known for his obsession with bikes and has a garage at his hometown in Jharkhand with vintage as well as modern bikes.
Virat Kohli, who is India's brand ambassador for German luxury car manufacturer Audi , has often spoken about his craze for fast cars. Kohli revealed early on in his career that there were plenty of cars he purchased but hardly got the time to drive them. He stressed how he has become more practical and has now sold most of his cars.
"Most of the cars I used to own were impulsive buys, and I ended up hardly driving or traveling in them as well. Beyond a point, I was like, this is pointless, so I ended up selling most of them, and now we only use what we absolutely need to."
I think it is also part of growing up and becoming more aware and mature about things. You don't feel like owning 'toys' as such, it is about being practical."
Fascination with trump cards and posters
The former RCB captain reminisced about how he and his friends used to be obsessed with trump cards like 'Lex Luger' and 'Giant Gonzalez' back in the day.
Kohli also spoke about how he looked forward to seeing images of cricketers and sportsmen like Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupati in Sportstar magazine.
"Trump cards were one of my favorite things to engage in with my friends, we used to hunt for those cards. It was a lot of fun, and for me, it was not much of posters with singers, or actors, or celebrities, but Sportstar magazine used to be big back in the day."
"So, I used to look for posters of cricketers or even other sportspersons like Leander Paes, and Mahesh Bhupati, so I had all those posters in my cupboard in my room."
Favourite location in India
Kohli has been known to travel to some of the most exotic locations around the globe with his family. From Finland to New Zealand, Kohli glitters his Instagram feed with his adventures. On being asked about his favourite location in the country, Kohli spoke about visiting Uttarakhand and recalled a tale of finding a quaint location that isn't known to many that took his breath away.
"We ended up going to one remote area in Uttarakhand this time around. We all go to famous spots, but the tucked-in, kind of beautiful places that you don't see so much. I was completely blown away, it was so beautiful, and peaceful, and it was just so amazing to have this place in the middle of all the famous places that people know."
