Virat Kohli and Glenn Maxwell are very good friends considering they both play for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the IPL. However, Glenn Maxwell recently revealed that Kohli had once blocked him on Instagram because the India star felt that Maxwell had mocked him.
Maxwell, the Australian all-rounder, stated in his recently published book ‘The Showman’ that four years before they became teammates, an incident between the two prompted Kohli to block Maxwell on Instagram.
Prior to the IPL 2021 season, RCB paid INR 14.25 crore for Maxwell’s services, transforming the franchise into one of the most lethal batting teams in the IPL.
With Kohli, AB de Villiers, and Maxwell in the middle order, RCB appeared unbeatable on paper. Maxwell scored nearly 500 runs that season, helping RCB reach the playoffs and finish third.
Virat Kohli blocked me on Instagram after I had mocked his injury in 2017: Glenn Maxwell
Meanwhile, on a podcast, Glenn Maxwell, while promoting his autobiography, revealed that Virat Kohli had blocked him on Instagram after he had mocked Virat Kohli after he had injured himself during a Test between India and Australia in the 2017 series in India.
“When I knew that I was going to RCB, Virat was the first guy to message me and welcome me to the team. When I turned up for the pre-IPL training camp, we obviously got chatting and spent a fair bit of time training together as you do. So I go to his social. media, follow him. Didn’t even think about it before that. Never really crossed my mind. I was like ‘I can’t find him,” Maxwell said on the LiSTNR Sport podcast.
“I’m sure he’s on social media somewhere so I didn’t think anything of it. Not really that maybe he wasn’t savvy with Instagram. Didn’t really understand why he wasn’t coming up and then someone mentioned that he might have blocked you. That is the only way you’re not able to find him. I was like surely not,” Maxwell stated.
Fair Enough: Glenn Maxwell told Virat Kohli for blocking him on Instagram
What had happened was that when Australia toured India for one of the most intense Test series in history, Maxwell made a dig at Kohli.
Kohli injured his shoulder while fielding on the first day of the third Test in Ranchi, but when Australia took the field two days later, Maxwell mocked Kohli. Maxwell mimicked the former India captain as he gripped his right shoulder.
Kohli had to miss the last Test match in Dharamsala due to an injury, and considering the competitive atmosphere of the four-Test series, Kohli was certain to handle it well.
“Then I went and asked him ‘Have you blocked me on Instagram?’ And he was like, ‘Yeah probably. It was when you mocked me during that Test match. I think I got the sh*** and decided to block you. I was like ‘yeah, that’s fair enough’. So yeah, he ended up unblocking me, and we became great friends after that,” added Maxwell.
Kohli and Maxwell have mellowed over time, and understandably so. After going through a variety of comparable circumstances, the two superstars from their different countries have bonded in more ways than one.
He said: “It was a nice little story to have as a little side note but we’ve had quite a funny relationship leading up to playing the IPL together. Sharing that dressing room and sharing experiences, becoming parents, I suppose, around the same time. From the days we were both young and brash and going hard at each other on the field. We were in the front and centre of all that as well, sort of being the orchestrator like ‘Maxi, get into his face. Say some words to him and get the young guy to do the hard work.”