Virat Kohli is arguably the most sought-after cricketer ever – thanks to the advent of social media. The former India captain has been an advertiser’s dream for years and he is the cricketer with most brand endorsements.
Despite his lack of form in recent times, his stocks have never dipped. In fact, his popularity and stocks have only grown. On Instagram, his followers and the amount he charges has grown leaps and bounds over the years. Kohli, who is the most followed Indian athlete, earns a whopping USD 1.088,000 – that approximately is Rs 8.9 Cr – for every Instagram post he makes. The ex-Indian captain has 200,703,169 followers on the platform.
The three other sports stars above him in the list are Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, and Neymar Junior. The ex-India captain has been ranked 14th in the list of highest-paid celebrities in the world on Instagram. Kohli is the only Indian to feature among the top 15 names on the list. Meanwhile, Kohli would be a key member of the Indian side in Australia at the T20 World Cup.
He would be expected to win games for India. The Indian cricket team is set to leave for Australia on 6th October for the T20 World Cup just after the T20 series against South Africa. On reaching down under, the Men in Blue will hold a preparatory camp ahead of the showpiece event. After landing in Australia, India will train in Perth till October 13, where they are also slated to play a practice game against Western Australia. Thereafter, they will move to Brisbane to take on Australia and New Zealand in two more warm-up games before the start of the proper tournament, an ESPNcricinfo report said.