I trained my binoculars on Virat Kohli right after the IPL final. I couldn't find him

The report has been filed. The last line was sent to my teammates at the table, laptop closed. With a few balls left in the IPL 2026 final, I was already reaching for my binoculars because there was only one place worth looking at when Royal Challengers Bengaluru crossed the line.

I trained them on it well before the winning six. He hit it: 75 off 42 balls, nine fours, three sixes, the last of which wrapped up the chase in two overs. And then I waited.

He blew a quick kiss towards the stands where Anushka Sharma was sitting. He briefly raised his bat to the crowd. And then he went over to shake hands, first with opponents, then with teammates, in the manner of a man who knew how the evening was going to end. I kept my binoculars on him, waiting for his knees to buckle, for his chest to open, for the Kohli I knew to burst through.

He didn’t arrive.

The thing about Virat Kohli is that he celebrates a wicket like he just won the World Cup. Arms outstretched, chest heaved, bellowing at none and all as if the act of a batsman losing his stumps was the most momentous event in human history. It’s instinct, not performance – or perhaps, with Kohli, the two have always been the same. For seventeen years at Royal Challengers Bengaluru, this intensity has been the heart of the entire franchise. When he hurt, the team hurt. When he wanted it, you could feel it from the stands.

That’s why anyone watching closely, on TV or from the press box in Ahmedabad, spent much of the IPL 2026 final looking for this man and someone else entirely.

You had to be in the same stadium twelve months ago to understand why it matters.

IN 2025 final against Punjab KingsKohli started crying before the last delivery was played. Standing along the boundary rope, he dropped to his knees, tears flowing freely. It wasn’t a celebration, not yet. It was the release of 17 years of weight, the accumulated pressure of four runner-up finishes and a franchise that took everything it had and kept asking for more.

AB de Villiers flew in for the occasion. Chris Gayle too. Both were invited to the stage. The broadcaster couldn’t take his eyes off Virat. Rajat Patidar was the captain but the night belonged to someone else and everyone knew it.

When Kohli spoke, the words came out raw: “I gave this team my youth, my best results and my experience. I never thought this day would come.”

That was a relief. Pure, unguarded, 17 year relief.

What happened in 2026 was something altogether quieter. Before the final, Kohli met AB de Villiers, this time for broadcasting duties, for a brief private chat. A hug, a few words. That was the extent. The pre-match ceremony belonged to Patidar. The post match ceremony also belonged to Patidar. And when the trophy was presented, it was the Patidar who had to physically lead the way

Kohli to the center of the podium before he could lift it. The loudest Kohli was seen all evening at the victory party afterwards, he dances with his wife. On the field it seemed to shrink, as if the space it usually filled required a conscious effort to clear.

Those who watched RCB during the tournament saw the same quality in training. He finished his work at the nets unceremoniously and drifted back to the dugout. He was present without imposing. Scored runs as always but the narrative of the tournament moved around him rather than through him — Eight different players won Player of the Match across the campaign and Patidar reached 33 on the day of the final, becoming only the third captain after MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma to successfully defend an IPL title.

DID KOHLI DO WHAT DHONI AND ROHIT DIDN’T?

Now think about that comparison for a moment.

Dhoni rebuilt CSK so thoroughly in his image that the franchise and the man became essentially the same entity. Rohit did the same for Mumbai Indians in five titles – patient, unruffled, still at the center of it all. It was never a failure of generosity on their part. The club’s identity has always been, inextricably, theirs, so the question of a step back has never quite arisen. The spotlight stayed because it had nowhere to go.

Now both franchises are paying for it. Mumbai Indians have spent much of IPL 2026 searching for an identity shift of leadership to Hardik Pandya, yet create a cohesive team in the image of anything. CSK, without a fit and available Dhoni, experienced their own crisis. For the first time in the history of the tournament, three consecutive years have passed without one of them winning the title. The machine survived the men, but only narrowly—and with no clear idea of what it is when they’re not there.
Which is the context in which what Kohli has done carries its full weight.

He remained the undisputed man of the final: 75 not out, man of the match, match-winning six with the bat. But zoom out and the picture is even starker: 675 runs across the tournament at an average of over 50, a strike rate of 165.84 and a complete dismantling of the anchor role he once considered a professional credo.

He attacked from the first ball, trusted the innings to absorb the risk and quietly did more for this team than the numbers alone suggest. None of this was accompanied by a single moment of looking at me.

He then spoke with the clarity of a man who has truly stopped needing to be the sole engine: “Even tonight, I know it’s a chase and they’re probably trying to get me out early, but I was very confident that even if I went out early, we’ve got a championship team to get the job done. When you have that confidence, you can go out there and really go out.”

In other words, he was free because he chose to make himself replaceable. In the words of R Ashwin, he became “a mentor figure, a big brother and an alpha who allowed others to lead”.

“VIRAT KOHLI IS THE ALPHA, STILL TOOK A STEP BACK LIKE AN ELDER BROTHER AND LET RAJAT LEAD”

R. Ashwin names five people (including Virat Kohli) responsible for RCB’s incredible performance in the last 2 years:

– Andy Flower
– You Bob
-Dinesh Karthik
– Rajat pic.twitter.com/L0gK95MNjg— TheFakeFakeer (@TheFakeFakeer) June 1, 2026

AB de Villiers, watching from the commentary box at the exact moment Kohli hit the winning runs, picked up on a detail he said was the cleanest:

“Much more calm in the camp. They came here with a mission and carried it out to perfection. Clear plans were given to every member from top to bottom.”

That’s what RCB never had before – it wasn’t a star, they always had one, but a structure that could breathe without him at its centre. Dhoni and Rohit shaped their franchises with equal depth, with equal dedication. But their success has made them inseparable from the identity they have built. Their success made them a franchise. The transition, when it came, had nothing to hold the shape.

Kohli, by a strange twist, was spared this trap of 17 years of failure. He never managed to build an empire, so there was no one to protect. When success did come, it came more as a collective release than a personal coronation, and he understood, perhaps better than anyone else, that it had to stay that way. Virat Kohli has now won two titles in two years. (Image: Reuters)

Ads will always want his face. The locker room, by his own silent choice, doesn’t need it. The franchise has always been male. Then Virat changed the script.

– The end

Issued by:

Amar Panicker

Published on:

02 Jun 2026 11:48 IST