A piece of fake news regarding Team India and Rajasthan Royals (RR) spinner Yuzvendra Chahal's social media post for Virat Kohli spread by a fan, took social media by storm, fooling several cricket supporters on X after it went viral on the microblogging platform.
The incident happened after Yuzvendra Chahal shared a heartwarming message for Virat Kohli on Instagram following RR's game against RCB last weekend.
“You will always be my Virat Bhaiya,” he wrote under a picture of the two cricketers hugging each other on the popular photo and video-sharing network.
Since Saturday, the post has garnered nearly 1.5 million likes.
Yet, it isn't the real stats on the post that made a hit among cricket lovers across the world. Rather, it became the center of attraction due to a controversial claim made by a fan.
According to an X user, Yuzvendra Chahal's message for Virat Kohli earned him over 10 million followers on the Meta-owned platform, taking him past the likes of Bollywood celebrities Malaika Arora and Diljit Dosanjh, who have 18.8 million and 19.3 million followers, respectively.
Sharing two screenshots to prove that his claim was true, he showed that Yuzvendra Chahal's followers jumped from 9.4 million to 19.4 million after his emotional post for Virat Kohli.
But his screenshot turned out to be fake as Yuzvendra Chahal still has 9.4 million followers on Instagram.
While Yuzvendra Chahal may have failed to increase his followers on social media, Virat Kohli's stakes have risen considerably since he took the 2024 IPL by storm.
Recently media outlet Cricbuzz claimed that Virat Kohli was a certainty in the Rohit Sharma-led team, considering the Delhi-born cricketer's dazzling form in the ongoing IPL for his franchise Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB).
With 316 runs in five matches, the 35-year-old leads the run charts in the 2024 IPL at present. During his splendid run in the elite competition, Virat Kohli has struck two fifties and a record-extending eighth hundred in the tournament.
Furthermore, Virat Kohli's runs have come at a healthy strike-rate of 146.29 and an extraordinary average of 105.33.
While Virat Kohli's consistency is something to marvel about in the IPL, there have been murmurs about his strike-rate in the event.
In RCB's last fixture against the Rajasthan Royals (RR), while Virat Kohli came up with a majestic knock, his 67-ball hundred was still the joint-slowest in the IPL. In 2009, out-of-favor Team India batter Manish Pandey scored his century in the same number of balls against the Deccan Chargers.
Overall, he faced 72 balls during his innings – the third-highest in the Indian Premier League.
New Zealander Brendon McCullum smashed an unbeaten 158 off 73 balls in the maiden IPL clash in 2008 while Manish Pandey needed 73 deliveries for his unbeaten 114 vs the Deccan Chargers the following year.
Moreover, he became the first player to score more than 7500 runs in the IPL. His run tally for RCB in the IPL now stands at 7579 runs.
In addition to that, the Delhi-born cricketer has made 424 runs for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the now-defunct Champions League T20 tournament. Across the two events, Virat Kohli has scored 8003 runs for the RCB, making him the first player to compile that many runs for a single team in the T20 format.
With Virat Kohli facing criticism about his strike-rate in the IPL, West Indian legend Brian Lara suggested that Virat Kohli is a player who can accelerate during an innings. Also, he suggested that he would be opening for India alongside Rohit Sharma in the T20 World Cup.
“The strike-rate depends on position, and for an opener strike-rate of 130-140 is pretty alright. But if you are coming in the middle-order then you may be required to hit at 150 or 160. As you have seen in this IPL, batsmen are hitting at 200 in the latter part of an innings,” Brian Lara told Star Sports.
“But an opener like Kohli always has the chance of starting at 130, bat through the overs and finish at 160 or even higher, which is alright. But if you ask me, India's top three in the World Cup should be Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Shubman Gill irrespective of all these. And for RCB, it should not be about one person, as it has to be a team effort,” he added.
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