Virat Kohli revealed an untold tale of his career and revealed how a legendary South African cricketer had a big impact on his career. The 36-year-old recalled his first season with the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in 2008 and claimed it was the Proteas legend, who left him stunned.

While Kohli's close friendship with Ab de Villiers is well documented, and Gary Kirsten was the head coach of the team when he broke through the team, the ex-Indian captain has now spoken about the role Mark Boucher played when he was young.

Kohli revealed that Boucher came to the 2008 IPL with the mindset of helping young Indian players and recalled that the South African great once gave him a stern message and told him that he has to be playing for India soon.

"Actually, out of all the players I played with initially, Mark Boucher had the biggest impact on me. As a young kid, he was the only guy I saw who came with the mindset, 'OK, I'm going to help some of the young players, some of the young Indian players.' He saw me play, noticed a bit of potential, and figured out what my weaknesses could be. If I wanted to go to the next level, this is what I needed to do - without me even asking him anything," said Kohli in an interaction with Mayanti Langer on the latest episode of the RCB Podcast.

"So he took me to the nets and said, 'You need to work on the short ball. No one's going to give you a chance in international cricket if you can't pull the ball.' I said, 'OK.' And then he was hitting these tennis balls at me at a pace where I thought, 'If this is what it's going to take, I don't think I'll be able to make it to the next level.' But he really kept at it, kept at it, and I started getting better,"

"I remember there was a game we were playing in Chennai or Kolkata - one of those venues - where he told me, 'When I come to commentate in India three or four years from now, if I don't see you playing for India, you'd be doing a disservice to yourself.' So he really stunned me with the conversations he had with me. That kind of pushed me in the direction where I said, 'I need to start looking at how I can keep getting better.' He had a massive impact on me in those early years," Kohli added.

Boucher remained a key part of the RCB camp from 2008 to 2010 and played 27 matches for the franchise in the IPL. His last season in the league was in 2011 when he joined Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and played four games.

Boucher retired from cricket after suffering a freak eye injury during a tour of England in 2012. Since then, he has taken up coaching and was the head coach of the South African team from 2019 to 2022.

He returned to the IPL ahead of the 2023 season as the head coach of the MI, replacing Mahela Jayawardene, who was in charge of the team during their 2017, 2019, and 2020 triumph.

Boucher was MI's head coach for two seasons, with the 2024 campaign seeing land in a centre of controversy as he faced backlash over the franchise's decision to remove Rohit Sharma as captain.

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