Virat Kohli has spent the better part of the past month and a half chasing wickets and results as RCB hunt a spot in the playoffs. After their showdown against Punjab Kings in Dharamsala, the batter is set to head back to Bengaluru for a short pause from the IPL grind.
On May 19, Kohli will step away from match-day routines and into a different kind of arena: thought leadership. For the second consecutive year, he will lead proceedings at the RCB Innovation Lab Indian Sports Summit Powered by Leaders, returning as one of the prominent voices at the event’s third edition in Bengaluru.
Quick facts
- Virat Kohli will attend the RCB Innovation Lab Indian Sports Summit Powered by Leaders on May 19.
- The summit is scheduled to be held at the Padukone Dravid Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru.
- Kohli’s session title is “Mind Over Everything: Virat Kohli on Peak Performance”.
- The event brings together leaders across sport, business, governance and technology.
- Headline speakers include Hari Ranjan Rao (Secretary, Government of India – Department of Sports) and Anurag Dahiya (ICC).
- Other listed participants include Mo Bobat, Peter Hutton, Ryan Sickman, Paul Foster and Vamsi Krishna.
- This summit returns as the third edition, with Kohli featuring for a second straight season.
Kohli’s “peak performance” theme
Kohli’s session this year—“Mind Over Everything: Virat Kohli on Peak Performance”—is built around the mindset required to keep standards high when the spotlight never turns off. It arrives at a moment when discussion in Indian cricket is increasingly dominated by younger names, with Heinrich Klaasen and Sai Sudharsan among the stars driving excitement for explosive batting and next-generation impact.
Even with that fresh wave capturing attention, Kohli remains central to the biggest conversations in Indian cricket. His current focus is on outlasting the new generation in the Orange Cap race by sharpening the fundamentals—turning longevity, discipline and “feeling the good pressure” into repeatable performance tools.
Beyond the on-field craft, Kohli continues to shape the conversation around training, recovery and mental preparation. Topics like workload management, leadership approach and personal branding are also expected to remain part of the broader discussion around how he sustains his game at the highest level.
What the summit is set to discuss
The RCB Innovation Lab Indian Sports Summit on May 19 will assemble leaders from sport, business, governance and technology to debate the future of Indian sport—covering both what happens on the field and how the ecosystem develops around it. The timing is described as especially significant, with India’s Olympic ambitions gathering momentum, private investments continuing to rise, and international sporting bodies increasingly pointing to India as a major next growth market.
Alongside Kohli, the programme lists Hari Ranjan Rao, Secretary of the Government of India’s Department of Sports, and Anurag Dahiya from the ICC among the headline speakers. The roster also includes Mo Bobat, Director of Cricket at Royal Challengers Bengaluru; global sports media advisor Peter Hutton; Gensler’s Ryan Sickman; OnePlan CEO Paul Foster; and Bengaluru Joint Commissioner of Police Vamsi Krishna.
While the broader agenda covers a range of perspectives, it is Kohli’s session that is likely to draw the most attention. The theme “Mind Over Everything” points toward the psychological demands of maintaining excellence in an era where every detail is scrutinised and performance is measured relentlessly.
How the event has evolved
The summit itself was launched three years ago with the aim of building deeper conversations around innovation, performance and long-term sporting development. The earlier editions leaned heavily into subjects such as sports policy, public-private partnerships, technology, athlete development and the business side of sport.
In Season 2, major voices included former India goalkeeper PR Sreejesh and ex-India batter Dinesh Karthik. With Kohli continuing his association, the event’s identity is set to remain closely tied to the kind of high-performance thinking he represents—connecting the IPL world with a wider view of how Indian sport grows over time.
