Virat Kohli Responds to Media House Spreading Fake News Against Him Ahead of IPL 2026 

IPL's leading run-scorer, Virat Kohli, is only 339 short of achieving the unprecedented milestone of becoming the first player to reach 9,000 runs.

Virat Kohli Responds to Media House Spreading Fake News Against Him Ahead of IPL 2026 

Virat Kohli had a hilarious response to claims that he made demands to the RCB management. (via Inside Sport)

In Short
  • Virat Kohli denied a false report claiming he requested chartered flights between Bengaluru and London ahead of IPL 2026.
  • He responded humorously on Instagram, dismissing the allegations and exposing the source of the fake news.
  • Kohli is expected to be a key player for RCB in the upcoming season after a successful previous campaign.

Virat Kohli took to social media to immediately deny a sensational news report that had surfaced just before the start of the IPL 2026 season. The report falsely claimed that the RCB star had requested chartered flights to travel between Bengaluru and London.

The 2026 IPL season is just a week away, with RCB all set to defend the title after having won it last summer. Rajat Patidar and Co., breaking an 18-year-old trophy drought, defeated Punjab Kings in the final.

The defending champions will begin their 2026 campaign against Sunrisers Hyderabad on March 28 at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. It also marks the franchise’s return to their home stadium, which was under suspension since the 2025 stampede. 

The biggest face to join RCB’s pre-season training camp was former captain Virat Kohli. He arrived at the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru at 4:00 AM on March 18th, and was greeted by a crowd outside the airport who had gathered to catch an early glimpse of the ‘King’. Prior to his return, the 37-year-old opted for a private high-intensity training session in London, working with coach Naeem Amin. 

Kohli, however, found himself at the center of a new report that made a speculative claim. A social media post, shared by a news portal named ‘WorldInLast24Hr’, claimed that the RCB star had requested a chartered flight to travel to and fro from Bengaluru to London. It claimed that Kohli planned to fly back to the United Kingdom if there was a three-day gap between matches. The baseless nature of the claims made the veteran cricketer respond personally.

An unimpressed Kohli shared the post in an Instagram story, while also dismissing it with two ‘laughing’ emojis. The 37-year-old’s response went viral, humorously causing the social media account of another news portal, which claimed to be the real ‘WorldInLast24Hrs’ (with an ‘s’ at the end), to crash. It was deemed that the portal that shared the news on the cricketer’s reported demands was actually fake.

Nevertheless, the veteran batter’s move to London has often been a debated subject, with critics arguing that he should live in the country he represents. Back to IPL 2026, Kohli is expected to be a key player for RCB this summer, having scored 657 runs during the previous campaign.

R Ashwin’s big take on Virat Kohli’s Test retirement, almost a year after the announcement

Former Indian spinner R Ashwin made a bold remark about Virat Kohli’s Test career, almost a year after the veteran batter announced his retirement from the format. Kohli stepped away from red-ball cricket last year, revealing his decision in the middle of IPL 2025. 

R Ashwin on Virat Kohli
R Ashwin opined that Virat Kohli retired from Test cricket ‘too early’. (via NDTV Sports)

The 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy, was Kohli’s last appearance in whites for India. Through a social media message, he brought an end to his 14-year-long Test career, while retiring as the fourth-highest run-getter for the country in red-ball cricket. He scored 9,230 runs in 123 games, at an average of 46.85, including 30 hundreds, and was also India’s most successful Test captain from 2014 to 2022.

His retirement from the longest format, moreover, came at a time when criticism was at the highest for his constant failure to score runs. Former teammate R Ashwin, who shared the dressing room with Kohli for years, however, did not feel the same way. Ashwin disclosed that he told the veteran batter privately that there was a lot of cricket left in him, while suggesting that media perception forced him to retire. He said on his YouTube show:

I have directly told him [Virat Kohli] that he had cricket left him in Test cricket. There was something left in Test cricket, but it’s okay, honestly. There is a problem in India about the perception.

Ashwin had himself announced his retirement in a dramatic way, midway through India’s 2024-25 Test tour to Australia. The off-spinner bowed out as India’s second-highest Test wicket-taker, having picked up 537 scalps in 106 matches.

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