Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) stand-in captain Virat Kohli faced a huge social media backlash after he insulted the legendary Sourav Ganguly in an Indian Premier League game against the Delhi Capitals.

Following the conclusion of the match between RCB and Delhi Capitals (DC), Virat Kohli not only gave a death stare to Sourav Ganguly but also refused a handshake with the Delhi-born cricketer. Though, some fans claimed that it was Sourav Ganguly who jumped the queue to avoid a handshake with Virat Kohli.

For the unversed, Virat Kohli and Sourav Ganguly share an acrimonious relationship after the former was sacked as India's ODI skipper when the latter was the BCCI president in 2022.

While Sourav Ganguly subsequently claimed that Virat Kohli was informed about the decision in advance, the 34-year-old accused the Bengali superstar of lying as he never told him to vacate his seat for Rohit Sharma.

Since then, the relationship between the ex-player and Team India and RCB talisman has broken down and they hardly wish each other on social media these days, which wasn't the same some time back.

However, Virat Kohli's shameful act of avoiding Sourav Ganguly in full public view was slammed on social media as Dada's supporters blasted the former RCB captain for not respecting his seniors.

 

Following the controversy, former India head coach Ravi Shastri shared his views on the growing rift between Kohli and Ganguly.

“Depends on what my relationship is. If I don't want to talk, I'll just go past. But at the end of it, when you go and sit down, you feel that there's always some room to grow up, no matter how old you are,” Ravi Shastri told ESPNcricinfo.

Meanwhile, former Australian all-rounder Shane Watson labeled the whole saga as “rumor-mongering”.

“It could be rumor-mongering, but I'm not sure. So, it's not something I want to get involved in,” Shane Watson said on Grade Cricket's YouTube channel.

“But there was definitely some fire in Virat's belly, that's for sure. For an opposition point of view, that's the last thing you need as well. Virat, when he's like that, that's when he's at his absolute best. Whatever reason that was, I'm not exactly sure.”

Virat Kohli recently became the first batter to reach the 3,000 run mark at a single stadium in T20s this week. Overall the 34-year-old has made 3,015 runs in 92 knocks at Bengaluru's iconic M Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Right behind the Delhi-born cricketer in the last are ex-Bangladesh skippers Mahmudullah and Mushfiqur Rahim.

In 121 innings, Mushfiqur Rahim has collected 2,989 runs at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium in Mirpur in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, and Mahmudullah has accrued 2,813 runs in 130 knocks at the same ground.

England's Alex Hales and Bangladesh's Tamim Iqbal occupy the fourth and the fifth spots on the list. While the Englishman has made 2,749 runs in 90 innings in the shortest format in Trent Bridge, the Bangladeshi has completed 2,706 runs in Mirpur.

It wasn't the only incident related to Virat Kohli that became the talk of the town on social media in the IPL.

On Thursday, Virat Kohli's fit of sulk in the match against KKR too went viral on social media.

The episode happened earlier this week when England and KKR opener Jason Roy smashed four consecutive sixes off the bowling of Shahbaz Ahmed in the sixth over at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.

With Jason Roy taking Shahbaz Ahmed to the cleaners, Virat Kohli appeared upset with his colleague as he felt the spin bowler could have altered his line and length to prevent the Englishman from clobbering him over the park.

As Jason Roy continued his assault on the RCB bowler, Virat Kohli was seen sulking over the underwhelming performance of Shahbaz Ahmed and looked visibly frustrated when the over ended.

Subsequently, Virat Kohli's reaction began trending on Twitter, with millions of his fans posting their opinion about his on-field antics.

Also, Virat Kohli faced social media mockery after he failed to lead his side to victory over the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).

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Virat Kohli's RCB is in fifth place on the table behind Rajasthan Royals (RR), Gujarat Titans (GT), and Chennai Super Kings (CSK), which have 10 points each. Lucknow Super Giants are fourth with eight.

While some called him “shameless”, others alleged he was only concerned about personal milestones and not keen to lead his side to victory against opposition teams in the cash-rich league.

Some even posted memes to have fun at Virat Kohli's expense.

Notably, RCB has never won the IPL in the 15 previous editions. Their best showing in the tournament came in 2016 when RCB progressed to the final before losing the title clash to Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Virat Kohli is currently the second-highest run-getter in IPL 2023. In eight games, he has scored 333 runs with five centuries. His RCB captain Faf du Plessis, who has 422 runs to his name in an equal number of matches, is ahead of him.

But the one major difference between the two players is their strike rate. While Virat Kohli has made his runs at 142.31, the South African has a strike rate of 167.46.

After RCB's loss to KKR, Virat Kohli slammed his team's display. The talismanic batter said that his side “deserved to lose”.

“To be honest, we handed over the game to them,” Virat Kohli told Star Sports after RCB's loss. “We deserved to lose because we weren't professional enough in the field. The bowlers hit decent areas, but we didn't hold on to our chances. That's what you call a freebie in T20 cricket and we literally handed them a victory, which for me is not ideal because we take pride in the way we play and tonight we weren't up to standard and something we are not shy to admit.”

“With the bat, we set ourselves up really well and then [there were] so many soft dismissals,” Virat Kohli added. “Balls which are not wicket-taking balls but we ended up hitting it to fielders about four-five times in the innings. These are some of the soft plays in cricket which you want to avoid as a team. So when you do six-seven of those on a night, obviously you are going to be on the losing side.”