MUMBAI: Yuzvendra Chahal has taken some punishment in his time. Slogged over mid-wicket, carted into the stands, dropped by the national side. But nothing quite prepared the Punjab Kings spinner for the fury that greeted a few seconds of shaky mobile-phone footage this week, in which he was filmed apparently smoking behind the wheel and flicking a cigarette butt onto the road before accelerating away.
Indian cricketer, Yuzvendra Chahal throwing a lit cigarette out of his speeding car.
— Oppressor (@TyrantOppressor) April 11, 2026
If even someone like Yuzvendra Chahal, among the top 0.5% of the country, behaves like this, imagine the condition of the general public. pic.twitter.com/t1U20mV9Pg
The video, captured by a fellow commuter and posted on X, spread with the speed of a well-timed googly. The backlash was instant, personal and, in places, breathtakingly self-righteous. “All that money and still no class, no civic sense. Disgusting,” wrote one user. “NO WONDER HE WAS THROWN OUT OF THE TEAM,” thundered another, in the measured tones that social media does so well. A third drew the line with admirable precision: “Smoking is one thing, but throwing a cigarette butt on the road is absolutely unacceptable.”
The timing was, to put it gently, awkward. Just weeks earlier, Chahal had sat down with his former Royal Challengers Bengaluru teammate AB de Villiers on the latter’s YouTube channel and announced, with evident pride, that he had quit alcohol. “It’s been more than six months,” the 35-year-old said. “I want to be more active, and I want to give 150 per cent for my team.” A senior player setting an example, he suggested, was what the game needed.
The internet, predictably, found the contrast irresistible.
Chahal, who has not played for India since 2023, is in the middle of an IPL 2026 campaign for Punjab Kings that has yielded three wickets from two completed matches. Punjab Kings face Sunrisers Hyderabad in Mullanpur on Saturday, and the all-time leading wicket-taker in IPL history will be expected to bowl regardless of what the court of public opinion has decided.
Whether the cigarette butt scandal will leave a mark is another matter. In a country where civic behaviour and celebrity culture collide daily, the outrage will almost certainly be replaced by the next controversy before the week is out. Chahal has taken bigger wickets. He will survive this one.
