Virat Kohli recently recalled his to-and-fro of sledging with Ishant Sharma in the first-ever match of the Indian Premier League between the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in 2008. He said Ishant, buoyed by the confidence and stardom of an Australia tour and with a new hairstyle, tried to get under his skin and that he gave it right back, though it was all ‘fun and games’. RCB hosted KKR in that IPL opener at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. Batting first, the visitors scored a whopping 222/3 led by Brendon McCullum’s iconic 158. In reply, RCB got bowled out for 82. Ishant took the wicket of RCB skipper Rahul Dravid in the second over. The pacer bowled a few deliveries against Kohli, who came to bat at number three, but Ashok Dinda got him out for 1 (5) soon after. “He (Ishant) was sledging me, like, seriously,” Kohli said in an interview with JioHotstar on the show ’18 calling 18′. “He had just come from Australia, got a new hair color, he was a bit of a ‘star’. I said, Side mein aa tereko batata hu mai (Come to the side and I’ll tell you). But it was all fun and games. There was a lot of pressure in this game, I felt, because I had never played in front of a packed stadium before…. I was really, really nervous. I still remember I was marking my guard and looking at the ground, that there are so many people there,” he added. Kohli also added that this was the match he got to know the true meaning of pressure and the impact of crowds. “I had never played in a crowd like that or in an environment like that,” he said of the Chinnaswamy Stadium. “But the most interesting part for me, which I have never spoken about, is that Ishant and I played all our cricket together. I had played him a lot, but in that match when he was bowling to me, I felt like this is a different level of bowler bowling to me. That was the pressure. Now you understand what the environment can do, I mean if I play him in the nets I won’t be intimidated. But there I felt like I won’t be able to hit against Ishant because of the environment, the pressure, that one wicket was down. That’s when I understood what pressure was and what the capacity of the environment was,” he said. Kohli’s RCB have won three of their four matches in the ongoing IPL 2025 season and are placed third in the points table. Ishant is now playing for Gujarat Titans who have the same points but are placed just above RCB due to their better net run rate. Stay updated with all the latest news on IPL 2025, including the schedule, points table, top run-scorers (IPL Orange Cap), and leading wicket-takers (IPL Purple Cap). Get real-time updates, match highlights, and expert insights—only on News18.