3 cricketers who played under Virat Kohli's captaincy and then became a coach at RCB ft. Dinesh Karthik

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) has been the home of Virat Kohli since the first day of the IPL. Kohli has witnessed many ups and downs in his journey with the RCB franchise.

The star Indian batter even captained the Royal Challengers Bengaluru in multiple seasons, with his best performance coming in 2016, where he won the Orange Cap and RCB finished as the runners-up. It goes without saying that Kohli has been the face of this franchise.

Having been a part of the RCB team since 2008, Virat Kohli has shared the dressing room with many big names. Many of his ex-teammates have retired already. In fact, the following three players once played under his captaincy and then went on to become a coach at RCB.

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#1 Dinesh Karthik

Dinesh Karthik played four seasons for Royal Challengers Bengaluru. He made his debut for RCB in 2015, when Virat Kohli was the team's captain. The wicketkeeper did not have a good season and was released subsequently.

He returned to RCB in 2022 when Faf du Plessis was the leader, and Karthik ended his IPL career at RCB earlier this year. Today, the Royal Challengers Bengaluru announced Karthik as their new batting coach and mentor for the upcoming season in 2025.

Notably, Karthik even played for India under Virat's leadership. His last ODI and Test appearance for India came under Virat's captaincy only. The wicketkeeper's last ODI was the 2019 World Cup semifinal against New Zealand, while his last Test was against England in the 2018 English summer.

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#2 Ashish Nehra

Ashish Nehra never played for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the IPL, but he joined the franchise as a bowling coach ahead of the 2018 season. In fact, Nehra was with RCB for two seasons, but the Bengaluru-based franchise failed to qualify for the playoffs in both editions.

Considering the team's disappointing performance, the management changed the coaching staff before IPL 2020. Ashish Nehra, who played the last T20I of his career under Virat Kohli's captaincy in 2017, lost his place as RCB's bowling coach. He then moved on to Gujarat Titans in 2022 and won the trophy with them as a head coach.

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#3 Andrew McDonald

Andrew McDonald was the head coach of Australia in the recently-concluded T20 World Cup 2024 tournament as well (Image: Getty)

Andrew McDonald guided Australia to the 2023 Cricket World Cup triumph last year in India as the team's head coach. Not many fans would remember that McDonald has been associated with Royal Challengers Bengaluru as a player and a support staff member in the past.

McDonald played only one match in IPL 2013 for RCB, and it was under Virat Kohli's leadership. The Australian all-rounder bowled a spell of 1/17 and scored a duck against the Delhi Daredevils in that game at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.

After that, McDonald never played in the IPL. In 2018, he was in charge of bowling talent development and analytics, where he coached the upcoming bowlers at the RCB franchise. However, in 2019, he moved to Rajasthan Royals' coaching staff.