Bengaluru, April 4 (IANS) Virat Kohli has reacted to social media chatter calling him an “overseas player” for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026, taking it in a light-hearted manner during a fun interaction with content creator Mr. Nags in a video shared by the franchise on Saturday.

Even though Kohli now plays only ODIs for India after stepping away from Tests and T20Is, he continues to be widely discussed among fans. The star batter, who has been spending a lot of time in London with wife Anushka Sharma and their children, has seen his stay in England become a talking point online. Some fans even joked that RCB are playing with five overseas players because of this.

The joke comes from IPL rules, which allow only four overseas players in a playing XI. Since Kohli is often in England, some fans jokingly refer to him as an extra overseas player.

During the interaction, Danish Sait, in his Mr Nags avatar, said, “People are saying RCB are playing five overseas players, I am not understanding what they are saying actually.” Kohli burst into laughter at the comment.

The former RCB captain replied, “I don’t know why are you asking me? Ask the overseas players. I am not an overseas players”. He then asked the host, “Am I an overseas player?” to which the reply was “no”.

Last month, Kohli had also dismissed false reports claiming that he had asked for a chartered flight to travel between India and London during IPL 2026. The report suggested that he wanted to fly home whenever there was a gap of more than three days between matches.

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’ emotions.

On the field, Kohli has been in good form. He scored an unbeaten 69 off 38 balls in RCB’s opening match against Sunrisers Hyderabad, helping his team register a six-wicket win.

Virat will be in action when RCB will take on five time champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on Sunday at M.Chinnaswamy Stadium.

–IANS

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