IPL 2025: Will Kohli quit IPL too? RCB one win away from history, speculation mounts

Dubai: Season 18 of the Indian Premier League already promises a historic finale. For the first time in its glittering history, the world’s richest franchise tournament will have a brand-new champion — either Royal Challengers Bengaluru or Punjab Kings.

It’s cause for celebration, tension and endless debates. But the biggest question looming large isn’t just who lifts the trophy — it’s whether Virat Kohli will lift the IPL trophy and then quietly walk away.

Kohli has already pulled off two shock announcements in the last one year. First, after a player-of-the-match effort in India’s T20 World Cup final win in Barbados, the 36-year-old declared it would be his last match in the format. Months later, he stunned the cricket world again by announcing his retirement from Test cricket via Instagram.

“There’s something deeply personal about playing in whites… I’ll always look back at my Test career with a smile,” Kohli wrote, describing it as a “quiet grind” that he was finally ready to leave behind.

That leaves ODIs and the IPL as the only formats where fans can still see the King in action. And with RCB now just one win away from their maiden IPL title, questions are being asked: If Kohli lifts the elusive trophy, will he call time on his IPL career too?

Arun Dhumal, chairman of the IPL and a former BCCI treasurer, is one of many hoping that’s not the case. In fact, he’s gone one step further and urged Kohli to reconsider his Test retirement too.

“Virat is the greatest ambassador for cricket. He is to cricket what [Novak] Djokovic or Roger Federer is to tennis,” Dhumal told PTI. “Even if RCB win, I — and the whole country — would want Virat to continue.”

He added: “Given the fitness that Virat has, he is probably fitter now than he was in the first season, after playing 18 editions of the IPL. He still comes back with the same kind of energy and commitment.”

When asked directly whether he feared Kohli might retire from the IPL after the final, Dhumal was firm: “See, neither do I think that, nor do I hope that.”

For Kohli, the IPL remains the one trophy missing from an otherwise overflowing cabinet. He’s won the Orange Cap multiple times and is just 86 runs short of crossing 700 runs for the third time in a season — something only Chris Gayle has done before.

More importantly, the RCB icon has been central to Bengaluru’s late surge. While he didn’t score against Punjab Kings in Qualifier 1, his former teammate AB de Villiers believes Kohli is saving something special for the final.

“He didn’t score, but we still saw him right till the end, celebrating with the batters,” De Villiers told JioHotstar. “The ultimate team man, and he looks very, very focused. I have no doubt in my mind he’s going to play a big hand in the final.”

Kohli’s decision to walk away from Tests was praised by mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton, who worked with him during some of his toughest spells.

“I take my hat off to him for retiring at the right time, rather than waiting until he was well past his best,” Upton said. “It was a day that was always going to come, and it was never going to be easy to hear.”

But if Kohli has one last “now or never” moment in him — like Barbados — it could come in Tuesday’s IPL final against Punjab Kings. And if RCB finally end their 18-year wait, few would begrudge Kohli if he walks into the sunset with the trophy that’s eluded him the longest.