Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) batter Swastik Chikara left his teammates completely bemused with his recent antics in the dressing room. In a video shared by RCB, pacer Yash Dayal and captain Rajat Patidar revealed Chikara, 19, opened franchise icon Virat Kohli's bag without permission and sprayed a bottle of perfume on himself in the dressing room. That too in front of Kohli. Guessing by Dayal and Patidar's face, neither of them would've even thought about encroaching Kohli's privacy.
"We were sitting in the dressing room after our last game in Kolkata. He went and from Virat Kohli's bag, took out a perfume bottle and used it without even asking. Everyone started laughing. He didn't even do anything; he was sitting like this [gesturing]," Dayal said in the video uploaded by RCB.
"Virat bhai was right there. I was wondering what this guy is doing," said Patidar, who led RCB to a win in their opening match of IPL 2025 against KKR.
While Chikara's actions were slightly out-of-the-box according to some of his teammates, the 19-year-old's explaination seems that he was unfazed by Kohli's presence
"He's our elder brother, isn't he? So I was checking to ensure he doesn't use a bad one. So I tried it. He asked me how it was. I said it's nice. I was only checking to let you know," Chikara said, while explaining the reason behind his bold move.
Meanwhile, RCB are enjoying a six day break between their first and second match. After comfortably beating defending champions KKR, RCB are on the road once again in their second match, against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on Friday.
Kohli (59 not out, 36b, 4x4, 3x6) and Phil Salt (56, 31b, 9x4, 2x6) added 95 runs for the opening wicket in just 8.3 overs as RCB chased down KKR's 174/8 in just 16.2 overs. They made 177 for three.
Earlier, skipper Ajinkya Rahane made a wonderful 56 and shared a 103-run stand for the second wicket with Sunil Narine (44, 26b) as at one stage KKR looked to break the 200-run margin with ease.
However, RCB bowlers led by left-arm spinner Krunal Pandya (3/29) staged a splendid comeback. Pacer Josh Hazlewood got two wickets.
(With PTI Inputs)