Virat Kohli Meets Rugby Legend Dan Carter Ahead of IPL 2026 Title Defence

Dan Carter is a retired professional rugby player who played for the Crusaders in Super Rugby and represented New Zealand internationally with the All Blacks.

Virat Kohli, on his Instagram, reposted Dan Carter's post as a story. In Carter's Instagram post, both Carter and Kohli are posing for a picture standing side-by-side.

Virat Kohli will be seen in action in the much-awaited Indian Premier League 2026 season, playing for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). Defending champions RCB will start their IPL title defence from March 28 onwards with a high-octane contest against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at their home venue of M Chinnaswamy Stadium.

In IPL 2025, Virat scored 657 runs in 15 innings at an average of 54.75 and a strike rate of 144.71, with eight fifties to his name, finishing as the team's leading run-getter and third-highest run-getter overall.

Currently at 8,661 runs in 267 matches with eight centuries and 63 fifties, Virat will be aiming to become the first player to reach the 9,000 run mark in IPL history.

Having made 9,085 runs in 282 matches for RCB across IPL and now-defunct Champions League T20, Virat is one extraordinary season away from becoming the first-ever player to score 10,000 runs for a single IPL team in all of T20 cricket.

Having made 13,543 runs in 414 T20Is, including nine centuries and 105 fifties, Virat will also be aiming to join West Indies titans Chris Gayle (14,562 runs), Kieron Pollard (14,482 runs), England's Alex Hales (14,449 runs), and Australian legend David Warner (14,028 runs) as the fifth member of the 14,000-run club in T20 cricket.

- ANI