Even as India couldn’t reach the finals of the recently concluded T20 World Cup, there is one man from the Indian cricket team who has been the talk of the town, made the highest runs in the series and also won the Man of the Tournament award. We are talking about Virat Kohli, who single handedly led India to the semi-finals by giving back to back match-winning performances.
He recently overtook skipper MS Dhoni as the highest-paid batsman on the endorsement circuit and now, has marched ahead of him to become the most talked-about and most trending sportsman on social media in India. In the month of March, Kohli averaged close to 12 lakh conversations as compared to Dhoni who recorded 7 lakh conversations, says a report from social media tracker Autumn Worldwide.
"Conversation volume in India has always been in the range of 1.5 lakh to 4 lakh. For the first time, we are seeing a jump with the range being between 10 lakh and 12 lakh. Kohli now has a clear lead," said Anusha Shetty, chief executive officer at Autumn Worldwide. "This is the social world where every subject is discussed...the cascading effect of conversations is higher and performance during matches and personal lives sway this volume of conversations."
Before the month of March, both Dhoni and Kohli had similar volumes of conversations, with Dhoni occasionally taking the lead over Kohli.
"Virat is very appreciative of his fans and tries to make them a part of his life on social media. The content he posts reflects his personality and that helps increase his following," said Jogesh Lulla, COO, Cornerstone Sport & Entertainment, the firm that represents Kohli. The 27-year old has 10.2 million followers on Twitter, as compared with 5.27 million for Dhoni.
As reported earlier, Kohli, who earns about Rs 8 crore for his MRF bat sponsorship, is way ahead of Dhoni’s Rs 6 crore.
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