IPL 2025: For me, Virat will always be 'chiku': Gujarat Titans pacer Ishant Sharma on bond with Kohli

Gujarat Titans pacer Ishant Sharma on Saturday (May 17) opened about his relationship with star India batter Virat Kohli, who recently announced his retirement from the Test cricket.

"I think Virat Kohli is for outside people. I can't see him like that because we played in the U-17s. He is a childhood friend to me," Ishant said on Star Sports Press Room with Gujarat Titans around the race to the play-offs.

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"When we were in the U-19s, we used to count how much money we had. We used to eat food. When we used to go to the U-19s, we used to save our travel allowances and take them with us. So, Virat Kohli is different for everyone. He is different for me," he added.

'We always talked about funny jokes'

Ishant went on to say that their interactions rarely involve talks about cricket but it's all about humour and banter."When we meet, we never talk about how we played so many Test matches. We never talk about it. We talk about funny jokes. This is happening, that is happening, look at this, look at that. Funny jokes," he remembered.

"I have never felt that he is Virat Kohli. For us, he is Cheeku. We have always seen it like this. He has also seen me like this. We shared rooms and so many memories," he added.

Meanwhile, Gujarat Titans will play against Delhi Capitals on Sunday (May 18) at the Arun Jaitley Cricket Stadium. Gujarat are currently at top of the table with 16 points from 11 matches and need just one win to secure their spot in the playoffs.

The pacer also talked about his relationship with team's head coach Ashish Nehra. He said, "If I talk about my relation, like that, I have played with him, we used to play together when I made my debut. Not only international debut, but even in my first-class debut, he was bowling, and I bowled a lot. So we know each other in many ways. We have meetings in the corridor, we discuss batters in the bus, that this batter can do this, or that, and this or that can happen.”

“So we never actually formally talk about meetings. In our meetings, we drink tea and coffee. So our meeting is not a formal meeting where we discuss batters, that we will do this, we will do that. It's a very chill atmosphere, and it’s not just with me, but with everyone,” he signed off.