Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell has revealed that Virat Kohli had blocked him on Instagram after he mocked the Indian batting maestro following his shoulder injury during the 2017 Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Kohli and Maxwell were not the best of friends until the Australian joined IPL franchise Royal Challengers Bengaluru in 2021 for a whopping Rs 14.25 crore.
Maxwell said that he tried to follow Kohli on Instagram, only to discover that he had been blocked by the former India captain.
“When I knew 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,” Maxwell said during the Willow Talk podcast on LiSTNR Sport.
“So, I go to his social media (to) follow him. Didn’t even think about it before that. Never really crossed my mind. I was like, ‘I can’t find him’.
“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’.”
During the 2017 Test series in India, Kohli suffered a shoulder injury while fielding during the Ranchi match. Later during the Test, Maxwell imitated Kohli by clutching his right shoulder.
Kohli, who missed the subsequent Dharamsala Test due to injury, did not like it.
“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’,” Maxwell continued.
“I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s fair enough’. So yeah, he (then) ended up unblocking me, and we became great friends after that.”
‘We’ve had quite a funny relationship’: Since then, the two have settled their differences, working together at RCB.
“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,” Maxwell said.
“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.” he added.
