“I was so nervous” – Virat Kohli opens up on his first meeting with Anushka Sharma

Virat Kohli recently recounted his first meeting with Anushka Sharma during an ad shoot. The star cricketer admitted to being nervous before meeting the Bollywood actress despite leading India during the team's tour of Zimbabwe in 2013.

The couple eventually tied the knot in December 2017 after dating each other for a few years. They also welcomed their daughter Vamika in January 2021.

Speaking to AB De Villiers’ YouTube channel, Kohli recalled:

“My manager called me one day on the tour of [Zimbabwe] and he’s like, 'This commercial opportunity has come up and you gonna do this ad.' I was like, 'Cool!' He’s like, 'We are gonna shoot it with Anushka Sharma.'

"She was one of the well-established and one of the top actors already in India. As soon as I heard that, I started shivering, 'How the hell am I gonna do this ad with her?' She was a proper actor. I was so nervous.”

He added:

“The tour went on and I went to Mumbai and came to shoot and I remember, I was so tense. I was like, 'How am I gonna say hi to her? What am I gonna say?' I was completely out of it. Out of my nervousness, I didn’t realize how tall she was. She was wearing a five-inch-tall sandal.”

Back in 2013, Kohli had already cemented his place in Team India across formats. Meanwhile, Anushka featured in Bollywood blockbusters like Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, Badmaash Company and Band Baaja Baaraat to name a few.

“Our backgrounds were very similar” – Virat Kohli on Anushka Sharma

Virat Kohli further revealed how he almost spoiled his first meeting with Anushka Sharma by teasing her for wearing a tall sandal. However, the duo eventually became friends before starting to date.

On this, he said:

“So, the first thing that I told her was that, 'You didn’t get anything higher to wear?' And she’s like, 'Excuse me?' I was, 'Oh my god! So bad!' But then the shoot went on and I kind of figured it out along that whole time that she’s actually a very normal person and then we got talking, and our backgrounds were very similar.

"The same things that a usual middle-class household would experience - we connected on all those experiences. From there on we became friends. Gradually, we started dating.”

The couple worked on multiple advertisements like Google Duo, Manyavar and Lux before getting married.