It had started to feel as though Virat Kohli was chasing a shadow that kept moving out of his reach. Kohli, at 36, had done the miles. The body had felt the wear, but the mind remained tuned to the rhythm of competition.

He trained, he ran, he watched, he learned. He lost. He came close. He kept coming back. There were finals he didn’t win. Champions Trophy 2017. World Test Championship, twice. IPL, thrice. For the country. For the club. The result stayed the same. But he did not stop. He played every game as if the next game would change everything.

And then, it did.

First, the T20 World Cup final in Barbados in 2024. It was one more chance to rewrite a narrative that had begun to feel all too predictable. The team dragged him to the summit clash as he struggled for runs. But he was there, anchoring the innings in that final. Kohli’s 59-ball 76 against South Africa set the foundation for a seven-run India win even as the other top-order batters faltered. The weight of unfulfilled expectations had started to lift.

Like Lionel Messi in Qatar 2022 and Sachi Tendulkar in 2011, Kohli had walked into that World Cup not just chasing his dreams but those of millions who had seen him rise, rage, and rebuild. Who had followed him from the day he first wore blue on an August evening in Sri Lanka in 2008, anointing him the successor to Tendulkar.

The ICC Champions Trophy followed – another long-denied title ticked off earlier this year. And finally, the one that always felt like a missing chapter – the IPL with Royal Challengers Bengaluru. No team was more attached to his image. No drought more personal. And now, no ending more fitting.

For 18 years, Kohli had stayed loyal. No titles. But also, no exit. In an era where players change teams for money or medals, Kohli never left. While others moved on, he held on. When the trophy finally came, it was the reward for his waiting, for believing, for not walking away from the Bengaluru fans who had adopted the chubby teenager from West Delhi in 2008 and never let go despite the absence of a trophy to forge that bond. Kohli is their boy. Their voice. Their forever hope.

Every run he scored, every celebration, every heartbreak – had all been shared. This trophy, too, is not just his. It is a joint possession. It is a reminder that happy endings do happen if you stay long enough.