Virat Kohli produced a Player-of-the-Match Performance in Royal Challengers Bengaluru's (RCB) IPL 2026 final win over Gujarat Titans (GT) at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Sunday (May 31).

Chasing a target of 156 runs, Kohli remained unbeaten on 75 off 42 balls to take RCB over the line with five wickets and 12 deliveries to spare.

Soon after guiding RCB to their second consecutive IPL title, Kohli walked up to Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. The RCB stalwart put his arm around the teenage prodigy to share some advice, words of encouragement, and validation for his extraordinary IPL 2026 campaign.

Kohli also had special praise reserved for Sooryavanshi, and while it was not caught on camera, it was revealed by none other than the legendary AB de Villiers, who was part of the broadcast team for the IPL final.

“Do you want to know what Virat said? I did have a brief chat with Virat, and as Vaibhav was walking up to the stage to receive his Orange Cap trophy, Virat raised his eyebrows and said, ‘AB, this kid is special. The boy can play,’” de Villiers recalled Kohli's words for Sooryavanshi.

Playing for Rajasthan Royals (RR), Vaibhav Sooryavanshi finished the season as the leading run-scorer with 776 runs at a staggering strike rate of 237.30, including one hundred and five half-centuries.

Along the way, Sooryavanshi shattered major milestones. At just 15 years and 65 days, he set a new IPL record as the youngest Orange Cap winner.

The southpaw became the fastest player in history to score 1000 IPL runs in terms of balls faced (440 balls) and the first to smash 500 powerplay runs in a single edition. He also broke Chris Gayle's long-standing record for most sixes in an IPL season (59 sixes set in 2012) by hammering 72 sixes across 16 matches.

As a result, Sooryavanshi swept five major honors at the conclusion of the IPL 2026, being named the Most Valuable Player, Emerging Player of the Season, Super Striker of the Season, Orange Cap winner, and Super Sixes of the Season.

Following his stellar domestic form, Sooryavanshi has been included in India's 30-member probables list for the 2026 Asian Games. Former cricketers like Sunil Gavaskar and Michael Vaughan have also advocated for his inclusion in the senior Indian team for the upcoming white-ball tours of Ireland and England.