Virat Kohli isn’t flying to London between IPL matches and he wants you to know he finds the whole idea pretty funny. Reports had been doing the rounds this week claiming the Royal Challengers Bengaluru batter had asked the franchise for chartered flights between India and the UK, supposedly to spend time with his family during breaks of three or more days. Kohli shut it down without so much as a press conference. He posted one of the reports on his Instagram story, added a string of laughing emojis, and moved on.
RCB Title Defence Begins March 28
The defending champions open IPL 2026 against Sunrisers Hyderabad in Bengaluru on March 28, and Kohli heads into the season with a couple of statistical milestones within reach.
He currently has 8,661 runs in 267 IPL matches, with eight centuries and 63 fifties. He needs 339 more to become the first player to cross 9,000 runs in the tournament’s history. Zoom out further, and across IPL and the now-defunct Champions League T20, he has 9,085 runs in 282 matches for RCB putting him one good season away from 10,000 runs for a single IPL franchise across all T20 cricket, another record no one has touched.
Also Read: Ishan Kishan Gets Fiery Send-Off From SRH Teammate In Practice Match — Watch
In T20 internationals, Kohli has 13,543 runs in 414 games, nine centuries and 105 fifties to his name. The next landmark is the 14,000-run club in T20 cricket currently an exclusive four-man group featuring Chris Gayle (14,562), Kieron Pollard (14,482), Alex Hales (14,449), and David Warner (14,028).
Last Season’s Numbers
Kohli’s IPL 2025 was hard to fault. He scored 657 runs in 15 innings at an average of 54.75 and a strike rate of 144.71, finishing as RCB’s top scorer and the third-highest run-getter across all teams. Eight half-centuries came along the way.
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