Virat Kohli Becomes 1st Indian To Reach 200 Million Followers On Instagram

India and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) star Virat Kohli on Tuesday became the first Indian to cross the 200 million followers mark on social media platform Instagram.

Kohli, one of the most popular cricketers in the world, is known for breaking records on the field, but this milestone shows how widely he is loved across the planet. Kohli, in fact, is the most followed cricketer on Instagram, and among sportspersons, only Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have more followers than the prolific batter.

Kohli himself took to Instagram to thank his supporters.

“200 mil strong. Thanks for all your support insta fam,” Kohli wrote along with a montage of his Instagram posts.

Kohli recently gave up captaincy in T20Is after the 2021 T20 World Cup and was removed as the ODI captain as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) wanted to have a single captain for the limited overs formats.

Shortly afterwards, he went on to step down as India’s Test captain as well.

He has been replaced by Rohit Sharma as skipper across all formats.

Kohli recently had a lean patch of form in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 and has been rested for India’s upcoming T20I series against South Africa.

He is set to next take the field when India take on England in the rescheduled 5th Test from the series from last year.

India, under Kohli’s leadership, had taken a 2-1 lead in the series before the fifth match was postponed due to a Covid outbreak in the visitors’ camp.