Kohli Refuses Handshake with Travis Head Post RCB-SRH Match, Video Viral
The incident took place post RCB’s loss against SRH on Friday in Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium where during the first innings of the game Travis Head got out on Rasikh Salam Dar’s ball after making an aggressive score of 51 in just 24 balls
The IPL 2026 is as dramatic as any other season. After the match yesterday between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bengaluru, which made SRH the third IPL team to qualify for the playoffs, there was a tense moment exchanged between RCB's Virat Kohli and SRH's Travis Head.
Post match, when the players of both the teams were exchanging the usual pleasantries, Kohli was seen snubbing Head and refusing to shake his hands. But what exactly happened?
The incident took place post RCB’s loss against SRH on Friday in Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium where during the first innings of the game Travis Head got out on Rasikh Salam Dar’s ball after making an aggressive score of 51 in just 24 balls.
After Head’s wicket Virat Kohli was seen celebrating aggressively true to his on-field nature.
However, during the second innings, Virat Kohli got out on Sakib Hussain’s ball while making only 15 runs in 11 balls. After Kohli’s dismissal, Head with other players were seen celebrating the wicket which seemingly upset the RCB batter.
Soon after the dismissal, Virat was seen pointing fingers at the Australian batter leading to an on-field verbal exchange between the two star players. In a viral video, Virat was seen gesturing towards Head and supposedly asking him to bowl. After the incident, Travis Head actually bowled around the 19th over of the second inning, taking an important wicket of RCB’s captain Rajat Patidar- who had scored 56 of 39 balls, marking his 1st IPL wicket in the last 9 years.
After the match ended, players from both the teams lined up for the customary handshake, Travis Head was also seen extending his hand to Kohli for the handshake while Virat walked past without even acknowledging him directly.
This incident went viral on social media, leaving fans stunned and debating over the sportsmanship spirit. Some criticised Virat’s gesture saying “if you give it, you’ve got to take it,” “why celebrate others wickets aggressively when you can’t see yours is getting celebrated the same way,” while a certain section of fans defended his intensity saying “aggression is part of the game.”
Sunrisers Hyderabad made an unbeatable score of 255 runs in 20 overs – Ishan Kishan being the highest run scorer while RCB failed to chase and made only around 200 runs in 20 overs marking a 55 run defeat.
Even after the win, SRH still finished at 3rd spot on points table, having to play the eliminator against the team at 4 th spot, while RCB still at the top will play qualifier 1 against Gujarat Titans.
The article is authored by Divya Sharma, an intern from Kristu Jayanti, Bengaluru.
