Who stole Virat Kohli's bat?
ESPNcricinfo staff
14-Apr-2025

Associated Press
How long before Virat Kohli realises one of his bats is missing? Tim David decided to find out after Royal Challengers' (RCB) win against Rajasthan Royals (RR) in Jaipur. After all, what better way to celebrate a victory than to prank your team-mates? Turns out Kohli keeps a close eye on his bat count (seven, in this case) and quickly caught on.
"I wanted to see how long it would take Virat to realise we've taken one of his bats," said David. "I counted my bats yesterday and there were seven, now there are six," Kohli can be heard saying. A quick inspection of his team-mates bags turned up the bat soon enough, in David's kit, to much laughter in the dressing room. To be fair, he did take very good care of it, even putting it in bubble wrap.
"I didn't take it!" said David in his defence, "I just borrowed it," which seems to have amused both Kohli and RCB head coach Andy Flower. Kohli then took at shot at his other team-mates - "All of you knew about this, didn't you?"
Phil Salt though thought David made a miscalculation: "I think he [David] was playing on Virat's kinder side, but I think he misread that one. Big misread"
Was Virat annoyed at this prank? Not if that dance at the end is any indication!
RCB clinched their fourth win in six games, defeating RR by nine wickets on Sunday. Kohli made an unbeaten 62 in the match - his third fifty of the season - and has 248 runs so far.