Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) veteran Virat Kohli turned into a bowler during a practice session ahead of IPL 2026.
RCB, the defending champions, will get their IPL 2026 campaign underway with a home match against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in Bengaluru on Saturday.
In a viral video, Kohli can be seen bowling to his fellow opener Phil Salt in a bid to help the England cricketer rediscover his form. Kohli can be seen bowling a few full-length deliveries to Salt before asking the latter if he wants to face a few short-length balls.
Salt readily agreed and practised his pull shots.
Virat Kohli-Phil Salt partnerships in IPL 2025
Kohli and Salt were one of the most ruthless opening duos in IPL 2025. Often, whenever Kohli has anchored the innings, Salt plays the role of an aggressor.
In 13 innings in IPL 2025, Kohli and Salt combined scored 565 runs, and the duo were pivotal in RCB clinching their maiden IPL title. In the IPL 2025 season opener against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), Kohli and Salt forged 95 runs off 51 balls for the first wicket.
Salt scored 56 runs from 31 balls, whereas Kohli amassed an unbeaten 59 runs from 36 balls to guide RCB to a seven-wicket win.
In another match against Rajasthan Royals in Jaipur, the duo forged a 92-run stand. Kohli scored an unbeaten 62, and Salt scored 65 runs to help RCB win by seven wickets.
Salt had a forgettable campaign with England in the recently-concluded T20 World Cup, aggregating just 130 runs from eight matches at an average of 16.25 and a strike-rate of 158.53. He scored just one half-century, a knock of 62 that came against Sri Lanka in the Super 8 stage.
In IPL 2025, Salt scored 403 runs from 13 innings at a strike-rate of 175.98, whereas Kohli slammed 657 runs from 15 innings at a strike-rate of 144.71.
Mo Bobat backs Phil Salt
Kohli has strongly backed Salt despite the latter’s recent struggles, and so has RCB Director of Cricket Mo Bobat.
“Someone like Phil Salt is still ranked among the top two or three T20 batters [No. 4] in the world,” Bobat said at a pre-season press conference.
“He also really enjoys being with RCB. He enjoys the franchise. He enjoys his partnership with Virat [Kohli]. He works very well with the likes of Andy and DK [Dinesh Karthik]. So, they’re doing some really good work right now.
He said that RCB remains confident in Salt despite his recent struggles.
“And I’m pretty sure we’ll see at the start of the season Phil Salt doing his thing. You know, I’m looking forward to watching him and Virat walk out to bat like they do. A couple of gladiators walking out, which is always exciting. And they’ll be trying to put the opposition under pressure. We’ve got a lot of confidence in our team. In particular, with your question, we do have confidence in Phil Salt,” added Bobat.
