India batter Virat Kohli has shut down rumours suggesting he made “big demands” to Royal Challengers Bengaluru ahead of IPL 2026, including claims of seeking chartered flights between India and London.
The speculation began after a social media post, shared by Kohli himself on his Instagram story, claimed that he had set two key conditions for the franchise. These included access to chartered flights between India and London, and permission to visit his family in London whenever there was a gap of more than three days between matches.
“Virat Kohli's big demands: According to reports, Kohli had asked RCB management for chartered flight access between India and London. If there's a gap of more than three days between matches, he plans to fly out to London and return just before the next game,” the post read.
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Kohli focuses on the new season
Kohli, who recently led RCB to their maiden IPL title, ending an 18-year wait, has already begun preparations for the upcoming season at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.
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Addressing the team ahead of their first training session, the 35-year-old emphasised the need to maintain the same intensity that drove their success last year.
“We worked really hard over the last two to three seasons to achieve what we did last year, and it's only going to get tougher because other teams are going to come hard at us,” Kohli said.
Virat Kohli breaks silence on ‘chartered flight’ rumours Instagram/Virat Kohli With 9,085 runs from 282 matches for RCB across the IPL and the now-defunct Champions League T20, Virat Kohli is just one big season away from becoming the first player to score 10,000 runs for a single IPL franchise in T20 cricket.
Overall in T20s, Kohli has amassed 13,543 runs in 414 matches, including nine centuries and 105 fifties. He is now closing in on another milestone: joining the elite 14,000-run club alongside Chris Gayle (14,562 runs), Kieron Pollard (14,482 runs), Alex Hales (14,449 runs), and David Warner (14,028 runs).
Royal Challengers Bengaluru will kick off their IPL 2026 campaign with a home match against Sunrisers Hyderabad on March 28.
