It should come as no surprise that Virat Kohli is currently the most popular active player in Indian cricket. The former Indian skipper enjoys a massive fan following, thanks to his elegance, class and display of mass with the bat. Over the last decade, King Kohli has shattered many records, etched his name in history and has left many legends behind.
As the ODI World Cup 2023 is underway, a survey by betmybet.com found that Virat Kohli is the most popular Indian cricketer, in terms of the growth of his Instagram followers. The list also features Indian skipper Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya and others. The survey also looked at the growth in popularity of the players in the Indian World Cup 2023 squad after the conclusion of IPL 2023 earlier in May.
Virat Kohli India’s most popular World Cup 2023 player
A survey by betmybet.com revealed that Virat Kohli has the honour of being the most popular Indian cricket player with 259,894,173 Instagram followers. What is, however, surprising is that King Kohli has zoomed way ahead of current Indian skipper Rohit Sharma in terms of popularity.
Rohit Sharma has the second largest following with 30,333,726 followers. The difference between Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma’s following is a humongous 229,560,447. Hardik Pandya is the third most popular player with 27,101,685.
Shubman Gill, Shami more popular after IPL 2023
India’s new lethal opener Shubman Gill has been in the form of his life over the last year. The young right-handed star has displayed his prowess across all formats of the game without leaving no stone unturned. With his popularity consistently growing, ‘The Prince’ has managed to garner more attention after IPL 2023.
The survey by the website revealed that Shubman Gill enjoyed the second largest growth in followers (4,377,661) out of the players in the Cricket World Cup squad. The first on the list is however Virat Kohli, whose following grew by 16,351,831.
Mohammed Shami had the third largest growth in followers with a3,435,300 increase. Rohit Sharma following grew from 27,342,036 to 30,333,726.
Virat Kohli goes past Sachin Tendulkar’s record
India batter Virat Kohli entered into record books in IND vs AFG World Cup match in Delhi on Wednesday. The 34-year-old surpassed Sachin Tendulkar’s record for most runs in ICC World Cups both 50-over and T20 combined.
Kohli crossed Tendulkar’s record of 2278 runs in his 53rd World Cup innings. He is the first batter on the list with an average over 60. The former Indian skipper first featured in 2011 World Cup, scoring 282 runs from nine innings. Kohli has so far featured in four ODI World Cups and five T20 World Cups.