Notebook celebration is back: Digvesh Rathi brings back viral celebration after taking wicket in DPL 2026 originally appeared on Cricket News. Add Cricket News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- Digvesh Rathi has revived his viral notebook celebration in the Delhi Premier League 2026.
- The send-off earned him repeated fines and a one-match ban during IPL 2025.
- Critics have again questioned the provocative manner of the celebration.
Digvesh Rathi brings back viral celebration after taking a wicket in DPL 2026
Few celebrations in recent Indian cricket have generated as much noise as Digvesh Rathi's notebook routine, and the mystery spinner has brought it back to the very competition that made him a household name. The Delhi Premier League has once again become the stage for the gesture that cost him heavily in the IPL.
I have no issue with Digvesh Rathi’s ‘Parchi Celebration’ but running 10 yards towards the batter while he’s going back and doing the celebration right in his face is very provocative and insulting. pic.twitter.com/ainJIWe3tE
— Neil🔪 (@PsychDominant) August 17, 2026
Rathi first caught the eye in the 2024 Delhi Premier League, where he finished as the fourth-highest wicket-taker with 14 scalps from 10 games for South Delhi Superstarz. That form earned him a 30 lakh rupee deal with Lucknow Super Giants at the mega auction, and he repaid it with 14 wickets in his debut IPL season.
The celebration, in which he mimes writing a dismissed batter's name in an imaginary notebook, became his signature. It also made him one of the most heavily sanctioned players of IPL 2025, with fines totalling around 9.37 lakh rupees and a one-match suspension after he accumulated five demerit points.
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Why Digvesh Rathi's notebook celebration keeps courting controversy
The trouble has never been the gesture itself so much as how and where Rathi performs it. Match officials repeatedly judged his send-offs to breach Article 2.5 of the code of conduct, which covers inappropriate conduct towards a dismissed batter.
His first offence came against Punjab Kings on April 1, 2025, when he was fined 25 per cent of his match fee and handed a demerit point for the celebration and a degree of physical contact, after dismissing Priyansh Arya.
He repeated it against Mumbai Indians three days later, earning a 50 per cent fine and two more demerit points for sending off Naman Dhir.
The third instance, involving a verbal exchange with Abhishek Sharma of Sunrisers Hyderabad, took him to five demerit points and triggered an automatic one-match suspension against Gujarat Titans.
Despite the sanctions, LSG retained him for IPL 2026, and captain Rishabh Pant publicly backed the celebration. The criticism has resurfaced with the DPL revival, centred once again on his approach towards the batter rather than the act itself.
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Why the celebration is worth keeping but the delivery needs work
There is a genuine case for protecting characters like Rathi, and former India cricketer Yograj Singh made it forcefully during the IPL, arguing that young players should not be penalised for expressing emotion.
Cricket has always had room for theatrical send-offs, from Wanindu Hasaranga to Kesrick Williams, both of whom influenced Rathi's own repertoire. The distinction the critics are drawing is a fair one, though.
Performing the celebration at a safe distance, as Rathi has occasionally done, keeps it entertaining, whereas charging 10 yards to do it inches from a departing batter's face crosses into confrontation.
If he wants the notebook to survive without a fresh round of fines, the fix is not abandoning it but simply choosing where he stands when it comes out.
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