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During Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s (RCB) previous match in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025, where they went on to beat Rajasthan Royals (RR) by 11 runs and register their first win at home at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru in this season. However, the victory definitely tasted sweet for the Rajat Patidar-led side, star India batter, Virat Kohli also grabbed several eyeballs for his gesture to RCB mentor, Dinesh Karthik.
Although, Kohli smashed a 42-ball 70 during his stay in the middle after RR invited the hosts to put the score first on the board, he also smashed 10 boundaries, which included eight fours and two sixes. But during the match, a brief interaction between Kohli and mentor Dinesh Karthik was captured on camera, and has been making rounds on social media.
I am too small a person to even speak about him: Dinesh Karthik reacts
The footage which went viral on the internet, shows that Dinesh Karthik and coach Andy Flower offered a piece of advice to the veteran Indian batter, but the latter appeared to dismiss the suggestion with folded hands. However, the specifics of the earlier conversation remain undisclosed, the RCB mentor later in a video shared on the official social media handles, praised Kohli and his inning.
Speaking in a video, which RCB captioned, “It’s one thing to play IPL for 18 years, it’s a different thing to be consistent for 18 years, it tells you a lot about Virat.” Karthik, who retired from all formats of the game in June 2024 said, "There is a loss for words. Purely the hunger that he has. It's one thing to play in the IPL for 18 years, But it's a different thing to be consistent for that long. This tells you a lot about the man. And he's very determined. In the first three games in Bengaluru, he told me two things. One was that he could have probably thought a little better and next, even the fans - the way he looks at it - he knows that a lot of people turn up just to watch him bat."
"So you can see that even though he did not say it explicitly, he felt that. And if that man puts his mind to something, the way he adapts, understands situations, I am too small a person to even speak about him. He is an absolute champion. Just the way he guided Dev (Devdutt Padikkal) along the way, making sure he took (Phil) Salt along at the start. His body language and commitment to a cause is outstanding," he further added.
With his 42-ball 70 against RR in Bengaluru, Virat Kohli jumped to second position in the Orange Cap race with 392 runs in nine innings thus far, with an average of 65.33 and an economy of 144.11. The 36-year-old is just 25 runs behind GT’s Sai Sudharsan, who currently sits at the top with 417 runs from eight innings.
