Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals) let go of the opportunity to sign up Virat Kohli ahead of the inaugural season of the Indian Premier League in 2008.
Published: April 16, 2026 5:12 PM IST
Former India captain Virat Kohli is undoubtedly a legend both in international cricket as well as the Indian Premier League (IPL). Kohli is the only player to turn out for the same team for 19 successive seasons and has tallied record 8889 runs in 272 matches so far. In fact, Kohli took over the ‘Orange Cap’ for the IPL 2026 season during his match-winning knock of 49 against Lucknow Super Giants in Bengaluru on Wednesday.
But if Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals) and their owners GMR Group had played their cards right, Kohli might never have played for RCB in the first place. In the inaugural auction of the IPL before the 2008 season, the Indian Under-19 cricketers including Kohli were picked through a ‘draft system’.
Delhi Daredevils got the first pick in the Draft and they could have selected any cricketer from India’s Under-19 World Cup 2007-winning squad which was led by Kohli. Everyone expected Delhi team to select Kohli as their first pick since he was also their ‘hometown’ boy having played first-class cricket for the state. But shockingly, GMR Group picked left-arm pacer Pradeep Sangwan over Kohli.
Vijay Mallya, who was the original owner of Royal Challengers Bengaluru, had the second pick and had no hesitation in picking Kohli and the former India skipper has never left the franchise since then. Kohli was, in fact, retained for Rs 21 crore ahead of IPL 2026 season even as Aditya Birla Group-led consortium have now bought RCB.
Former Delhi Daredevils captain and India opener Virender Sehwag revealed the thinking behind picking Pradeep Sangwan ahead of Kohli in IPL 2008. “So at Delhi Daredevils back in 2008, the inaugural IPL season, I remember Shikhar Dhawan was also in our team along with Tillakratne Dilshan. Both of them were openers, but we used to make them bat at three and five because Gautam (Gambhir) and I used to open the innings. Manoj Tiwary had taken the number four spot. So we had a lot of top-order batters in the team, and it was becoming difficult to fit all of them in the batting order,” Sehwag said speaking on JioHotstar’s ‘Champions Waali Commentary’.
“At that time, Virat Kohli was also batting at number three or four. So we didn’t even have space to bring him in. We lacked a bowler, so we decided to go with Pradeep Sangwan instead of Kohli,” Sehwag added.
Delhi left-arm pacer Sangwan played three seasons for the Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals) from 2008 to 2010. He claimed 29 wickets in 28 matches for the Delhi franchise. Overall Sangwan went on to claim 38 wickets in 42 matches in his IPL career.
But looking back, it was one of the biggest blunders that an IPL franchise could make by overlooking Kohli and the Delhi team will definitely regret their decision.
Virat Kohli was ‘disappointed’ not to play for Delhi Daredevils
Kohli, who was captain of the Under-19 World Cup team, had expressed his feelings at not being picked by the Daredevils at the IPL 2008 auctions. “I am not disappointed that I won’t be playing for Delhi and happy to abide whatever BCCI and IPL have decided for us. Every IPL team has its strengths and I am happy just to be playing in the league. IPL teams have their fair share of international players and it would be a great learning experience to play alongside players like Rahul Dravid and Jacques Kallis in Bangalore. I think it is good that the money is coming in for the youngsters and now they can only concentrate on playing cricket,” Kohli had told this reporter back in 2008.
