For the 15th consecutive year, Virat Kohli will don the Royal Challengers Bangalore’s jersey in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The only player to play for just one franchise in every IPL season, Kohli was retained by RCB on the retention day. Though he will only be available as a player from now on as he had stepped down as the captain before the start of the 2nd phase of IPL 2021.
Despite leaving captaincy, Kohli was RCB’s first-choice pick and bagged a contract worth Rs 15 crore. The mega-contract will see him breach the elusive 150-crore mark in the coming IPL season.
Kohli, who had a salary of Rs 17 crore from IPL 2018 to 2021, will become the 3rd player to draw a salary of more than Rs 150 crore in IPL. The former RCB skipper has earned more than Rs 143 crore as a salary in IPL so far. And this year, he will draw a cheque worth Rs 15 crore, which will see him breaching the 150-crore mark.
Interestingly, Kohli has never been part of an IPL auction. He was picked up by RCB during the U-19 players’ draft for Rs 12 lakh back in 2008. He was the only player to be retained by RCB in 2011 and drew Rs 8.28 crore every year from 2011 to 2014.
In 2015, he got another promotion and earned Rs 12.5 crore every year till 2017. In 2018, RCB retained him for a record amount of Rs 17 crore. No other player has matched this amount yet.
Mumbai Indians (MI) captain Rohit Sharma will also breach the 150 crore-mark this year. He has drawn a salary of more than 146 crore so far. Rohit was retained by MI for Rs 16 crore.
MS Dhoni, the first player to breach the 150 crore-mark, has earned more than Rs 152 crore. He was retained by Chennai Super Kings for Rs 12 crore on IPL 2022 retention day.
