When he shared a dressing room with Virat Kohli during IPL 2026, Jacob Duffy was struck by how "down to earth" the India and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) superstar was despite approaching the status of a "religious figure" in his country. Duffy bowled frequently to Kohli during RCB's net sessions, and he looked ahead to matching wits with him once again when New Zealand begin their ODI series against India in Auckland on Wednesday.

"I got to see him [Kohli] yesterday," Duffy said during a media interaction in Auckland on Sunday. "He was in the gym, obviously, so running into him there was cool, but he was awesome to me.

"Obviously, for such a religious figure, I guess you almost say, in India - he's obviously a megastar over there - for him to be so down-to-earth and sort of welcome all us overseas guys in RCB was pretty cool, so very appreciative for him for that. It'll be awesome to play against him now that I've sort of shared a changing room with him as well."

Duffy said he had numerous interactions with Kohli during his time at RCB around strategy and tactics on Indian grounds.

"He's got a great work ethic," Duffy said. "Obviously, I bowled a lot to him in the nets because he was always the first batter and I was always the first bowler. We actually spent a lot of time facing each other in the nets, so that's quite cool. But also from there, he's seen a lot of me now too, so he'll have good preparation.

"I guess we talk a lot about fine details. We talk about certain wickets back in India. Certain wickets are quite different, so he talked a lot about the different lines and lengths on those kind of wickets and how he adjusts and how he thinks I could be adjusting on those ones too. So little insights like that were quite important from him."

Duffy has experienced a T20I series of dramatic swings - he gave away 44 in just two overs in the third match in Wellington, where India chased down 199 with 40 balls to spare, before rebounding with 4 for 23 in New Zealand's 87-run win in the fourth T20I in Auckland. Soon he will need to make the switch to bowling in ODIs, a format he both enjoys and values highly. He stressed on the importance of this series in the lead-up to next year's ODI World Cup in Southern Africa.

"Personally, I quite like ODI cricket," Duffy said. "What I like about it is that up top, you get a little bit of the hard lengths with the swinging ball and stuff like that. Then you get a little bit of the hit and giggle near the end. We've also got the World Cup about this time next year in South Africa. That's pretty high on the priority list, I think.

"Growing up [watching the] 2015 World Cup, 2019 World Cup, those, to me, are the pinnacles of our game. Those are the major events that I grew up watching and strived for and wanted to be there for those.

"Obviously, a year out from that, I think these [games] play a pretty important roles in that. I guess we're trying to build and push for a case to make that squad."