Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) finally lifted the Indian Premier League (IPL) trophy in the 2025 season, as they waited for 18 years to lift their first-ever trophy, after suffering four heartbreaking final defeats (three IPL finals and one Champions League T20 final). During their trophy celebration, Virat Kohli held the IPL 2025 trophy along with former RCB teammates Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers.

The leading IPL run-scorer, Virat Kohli, has spent all his 18 IPL seasons with Royal Challengers Bengaluru, and they finally lifted their first IPL trophy in the 2025 season after defeating Punjab Kings by six runs in the final on Tuesday night (June 3). It was the trophy for Kohli's endless loyalty to the franchise. Kohli, the former captain of RCB, has seen many highs and lows with the franchise since the inaugural IPL edition (2008), while RCB also finished as the runners-up in the IPL 2009, 2011, and 2016 seasons. They also finished as the runners-up in the Champions League T20 2011.

RCB legend AB de Villiers

Meanwhile, after securing the IPL 2025 trophy, Virat Kohli dedicated the trophy to AB de Villiers, one of the successful IPL players in history, who played for RCB for 11 straight seasons (2011-2021). The second-most run-scorer for RCB, AB de Villiers, holds the record for the most Player of the Match awards in IPL history by winning it 25 times.

RCB legend Chris Gayle

In the meantime, Chris Gayle is the second most successful player in the list for the most Player of the Match awards in IPL history with 22 awards. Gayle was another successful cricketer, especially for RCB, while serving for the straight seven seasons (2011-2017), and he still holds the record for the fastest IPL century as well as the highest score in IPL history (also a T20 cricket record).  

Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle, and AB de Villiers have been very good friends on and off the field for a long time. So, it was very much expected that they could celebrate the trophy together after waiting for it for a long time, especially since the trio had closely missed a trophy success by finishing up the runners-up twice (IPL 2011 and IPL 2016).