Virat Kohli becomes first Indian celebrity to reach 100 million Instagram followers

Virat Kohli, the Indian skipper, has become the first celebrity from the country to amass over 100 million followers on the social media platform Instagram. The 32-year-old has beaten the likes of Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone, and Priyanka Chopra to accomplish the milestone. The Delhi-born Virat has managed now managed to smash a century off the field as well.

Bollywood actress Priyanka has over 60 million followers on Instagram. Even as Deepika has 53.3 million followers, Narendra Modi, the Honourable Indian Prime Minister, has over 51.2 million users on the platform. In the meantime, Virat also retained the top spot in India’s most-valuable celeb list according to the Celebrity Brand Valuation Study 2020 by Duff & Phelps.

Kohli is also fourth on the list of sportspersons with the most followers on Instagram. Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese footballer, Lionel Messi, Italy stalwart and Barcelona captain, and Neymar are the top three. Virat is currently busy leading India in the four-match Test series against England.

Virat Kohli drawing praises

Of late, Virat has drawn a lot of praises from the cricketing fraternity. Steve Waugh, the former Australian captain, lauded him and called him a ‘modern-day hero’.

“What they love about Kohli is that it’s like the new attitude of India, get stuck in, don’t be intimidated. Take everything on and anything is achievable and possible. But he’s like the modern-day hero,” Waugh was quoted as saying in the documentary on discovery+.

Glenn Maxwell, the Aussie all-rounder, is also looking forward to playing under the leadership of Kohli in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Maxwell is set to play for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).

“He’s (Kohli) been the pinnacle of the game for a while as a multi-format player from Tests all the way to T20s. He’s been able to adapt his game, dominate for a long period of time and deal with the Indian pressure of being their captain and their best player,” Maxwell said.

“I’m looking forward to watching him go about his work, not just in games but in training, and hopefully tapping into some of the leadership stuff and try and learn off him,” he added.