Virat Kohli has added another feather to his cap, having become the First Asian and only Indian to surpass 250 million followers on Instagram.
Major milestone
He is now aso the third athlete to achieve the feat after Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi who have 585 million and 462 million followers respectively, cementing his status as the face of world cricket on social media.
With 250 million followers, Kohli has easily left behind some of the biggest names in cricket – Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni.
The former has 40.3 million followers on Insta, the latter is closely ahead with 42.2 million followers.
Pinnacle to the top
His popularity can be credited to his numerous deals which has promoted his sense of style and has built a successful brand with cash-rich endorsement promotional deals.
Having remained captain of IPL team the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) since the inception of the league back in the year 2008, he along with his team have cultivated a cult following despite having not once clinched the title of the tournament.
IPL 2023
Kohli is presently in top form and has lately scored two consecutive centuries in the ongoing tournament.
He’s had a great season this year, having scored 639 runs at an average of 53.25 and a strike rate above 139.
He also hit a record 7th IPL ton during RCB vs GT game.
He has scored seven centuries for RCB, registered 639 runs from 14 games, including 6 fifties and 2 centuries.
He is also the highest run-getter in the history of the tournament with 7162 runs under his belt.
Notably he is the third-highest run-scorer in the league so far.
World T20
Outside of commercial cricket he has scored eight centuries in T20 cricket, which includes one international century for India.
He has scored 11,965 runs in his T20 career which is 374 matches strong so far.
With IPL and his team’s ambitions drawing to a close, he is now set to play in the World Test Championship (WTC) final to be held in Oval, England from June 7.
