Virat becomes second-most followed Indian on Facebook

New Delhi: Indian skipper Virat Kohli overtook Bollywood star Salman Khan to become the second-most followed Indian personality on social media platform Facebook.

The 28-year-old has more than 35 million followers on Facebook, 6,00,000 more than the ‘Tubelight’ star. Kohli, who recently termed social media as distraction, boasts 16 million followers on Twitter and whopping 14 million fan following on Instagram.

The right-arm batsman is now only behind Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi , who has wide presence on social media and more than 42 million followers on Facebook.

“This is a bi-product of what we do on field, feel happy on hearing such things”, said Virat Kohli on becoming 2nd most followed Indian on Facebook

“Fans have been supporting us, it is priceless. Keep supporting the team”, he added.

The Delhi born cricketer’s popularity has seen an immense growth after he took over the reins of Indian cricket team from Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Kohli has a huge fan base in the Asian sub-continent with more than 83% followers from India, nearly 5 % from Bangladesh and also has more than 1 lakh followers from arch-rivals Pakistan.

Kohli has been hitting the headlines after a reported spat with former India coach Anil Kumble, which led to latter’s resignation from the top post, following India’s loss to Pakistan in the ICC Champions Trophy final.

The Indian skipper also features in the list of top 10 followed sports stars on facebook with Portugal and Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo leading the chart.