New Delhi, March 22 (IANS) India’s batting stalwart Virat Kohli has laughed off ‘fake reports’ suggesting that he demanded a chartered flight for his travel from India to London and also wishes to fly out home in between the matches at the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026.

The report, shared by an Instagram account named ‘worldinlast24hrs’ suggested that Kohli had reportedly asked Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) management for chartered flight access between India and London and also stated that he wishes to fly out to the UK whenever there’s more than a three-day gap between two games and return just before the next fixture.

However, the former RCB skipper rubbished the report, sharing a screenshot of the now-deleted post on his Instagram story with a couple of ‘laughing out loud’ emoticons.

Later, the above-mentioned Instagram handle shared that their account had been crashed after Kohli’s reaction to their post. “Our account crashed after Virat Kohli’s story” with a screenshot of their analytics.

Earlier, Kohli addressed a small group, mainly composed of Indian players during the team’s first training session, encouraging them to perform at their best in the coming weeks. “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 told his teammates.

Head coach Andy Flower had earlier welcomed the new players to the squad before Virat Kohli gave them a motivational talk in the first training session.

The former India captain, who ranks high on the all-time scorers’ list in the IPL, emphasised urgency from day one, “We don’t waste these days. We stay ahead. So, switch on now. Let’s not waste even a minute of any session that we are a part of. We must give our 120 per cent for these two and a half months.”

–IANS

vi/bc