Virat Kohli Fans Climb Trees To Witness His Match-Winning Knock In Vijay Hazare Trophy. Pictures Go Viral

India's veteran batters Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma were at their best during their respective Vijay Hazare Trophy matches on Wednesday. Rohit scored a terrific 155 off 94 balls for Mumbai against Sikkim in Jaipur, while Kohli smashed 131 off 101 balls for Delhi against Andhra Pradesh in Bengaluru. Fans gathered in huge numbers for Rohit's game at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium, but the case was quite different for Kohli. No broadcasting or live streaming was available for both matches. What further disappointed Kohli fans was that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) organised the Delhi game behind closed doors at its Centre of Excellence Ground 1.

Eager to watch Kohli play, some fans climbed trees to get a glimpse of the star's batting. Pictures of this are going viral on social media.

Unreal Craze for Kohli man

BCCI didn't allow fans inside the stadium so fans are climbing trees pic.twitter.com/SFzhwDTuQR

— (@bholination) December 24, 2025

Kohli's knock for Delhi against Andhra in the Vijay Hazare Trophy was magnificent as usual in its execution, but there were no screaming spectators to garnish the occasion.

A Virat Fan watching the match from the tree top. @BCCI please provide the Live Streaming from the next match pic.twitter.com/jFNVUJHxT8

— Virat Kohli Fan Club (@Trend_VKohli) December 24, 2025

The Karnataka government's reticence to grant permission to host matches at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium citing security reasons forced the KSCA to shift matches to CoE, and the venue was out of bounds for fans.

So, instead of a roaring house, a tranche of snail-paced cargo trucks, a large posse of police personnel, and a few fans gawking over the barbed concrete walls provided an austere setting for Kohli's return to the Vijay Hazare Trophy after 15 years.

Kohli himself might have found it a tad bizarre. For a better part of the last decade and a half, the 37-year-old has always walked onto a cricket field to an uproarious welcome.

Even his return to the Ranji Trophy earlier this year after a hiatus of 12 years at Ferozeshah Kotla had drawn huge crowds.

But on a sunny Wednesday, Kohli made a rather unfamiliar, lonely walk to the middle - no cheers, no chants of "Kohli... Kohli!" and not even those ubiquitous RCB cries that reverberate around stadiums irrespective of the formats he plays.

The thick veil of silence was breached only when the fielding side players chatted among themselves or when occasional applause emanated from the respective dressing rooms.

But the entire sight had its own charm. A champion cricketer who has always been flanked on either side by fame and fans was now doing it all alone.

(With PTI Inputs)

Topics mentioned in this article

Cricket India Cricket Team Virat Kohli