Arshdeep Singh Wipes 200+ Instagram Posts After Season of Controversies and PBKS Playoff Exit

Arshdeep Singh had become one of Indian cricket's most prominent social media presences. His vlogging format — behind-the-scenes access to IPL team travel and dressing rooms — had built a large following and provided a level of access to franchise life that most players' feeds do not offer. That same format became the source of the Chahal vaping incident, as casual team-travel footage captured something the team would have preferred to keep private.

The BCCI's vlogging restrictions — asking Arshdeep to stop producing team-access content after the vaping clip circulated — reflected a broader concern about IPL franchises' control over their internal environments in an era when every player has a phone and a following. The May 2026 BCCI advisory to franchises explicitly addressed unauthorized content production and internal environment leaks alongside its anti-corruption protocols.

The colourism row involving Tilak Varma had a different quality to it. Unlike the Chahal vaping incident, which was an indirect consequence of Arshdeep's vlogging, the "Oye andhere" comment was a direct exchange captured on broadcast. MI's subsequent Instagram reel — featuring Tilak walking from darkness into light with the lyric "Andhera tera maine le liya" — was interpreted by many as a deliberate reference to the controversy. The lack of formal charges against Arshdeep for the remark left the question of accountability unanswered.

On 26 May 2026, the day after Punjab Kings' elimination from IPL 2026 playoff contention, India fast bowler Arshdeep Singh quietly removed more than 200 posts from his Instagram account in a single 24-hour window. What had been an active and regularly updated feed was reduced to approximately 44 posts — almost exclusively brand endorsements and sponsored content. Personal posts, team images, match celebration videos, and notably a widely-shared reel with Virat Kohli from the 2025 Champions Trophy were all deleted. He also removed Punjab Kings from his Instagram bio and changed his profile picture.

The timing and scale of the deletion made it immediately conspicuous. Cricket fans and journalists noticed the change within hours and connected it to the chain of controversies that had defined Arshdeep's IPL 2026 season.

The accumulated pressures were significant. In the first documented incident, Arshdeep posted a behind-the-scenes travel vlog that appeared to show teammate Yuzvendra Chahal using an e-cigarette aboard a team charter flight. The clip sparked a DGCA-linked inquiry alongside the BCCI's own investigation and led directly to the BCCI banning Arshdeep from producing vlogs for the remainder of the season. The second, and more serious, controversy emerged in mid-May when a broadcast clip from the PBKS vs MI match at Dharamshala appeared to show Arshdeep saying "Oye andhere, sunscreen lagaya?" to Mumbai Indians batter Tilak Varma — a comment widely interpreted as a colourism remark referencing Tilak's skin tone, for which former India spinner Laxman Sivaramakrishnan publicly called for Arshdeep to be banned for the rest of the season. The third incident involved Arshdeep posting content that mocked a fan's financial situation — a clip that drew criticism on the grounds of using a public platform to humiliate a member of the public.

None of the three incidents produced formal BCCI disciplinary charges, but collectively they generated months of negative media coverage at a time when PBKS's on-field results were also disappointing. The social media wipeout was widely read as Arshdeep's attempt to detach from the narrative: removing the posts that had fed the controversies, eliminating content that could be clipped and recirculated, and beginning a "digital reset" — the phrase used by several analysts describing the strategy. The deletion of the Virat Kohli reel was particularly noted, as that post had accumulated millions of views and was among the most-circulated pieces of cricket content from the previous few months.

“Arshdeep Singh should be banned this season. What he said to Tilak was unacceptable. Casual discrimination like this should never be tolerated in sport.”

The Instagram wipeout attracted immediate and widespread media analysis. Cricket commentators noted that the deletion of specific items — particularly the Kohli reel, which had nothing directly to do with the controversies — suggested a broader decision to reduce social media visibility rather than targeted removal of problematic content. The "digital reset" framing became the dominant narrative: Arshdeep, facing an off-season that would include India selection decisions and scrutiny of his conduct, was choosing to rebuild his public profile from a near-blank slate.

Whether the strategy was effective in the medium term depended on India's selectors and BCCI officials forming their own judgements about the season's conduct controversies. None of the three incidents had produced formal charges; the informal reputational damage was harder to measure and harder to address through a social media purge.