Virat Kohli joins Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi in elite list of most-followed athletes on Instagram

Indian men's cricket team captain Virat Kohli has achieved the remarkable feat of becoming the fourth most-followed athlete on social networking site, Instagram. Kohli, who now has approximately 70.4 million followers on Instagram, surpassed basketball legend LeBron James (69 million) to achieve the feat.

Kohli is now only behind Cristiano Ronaldo (232 million), Lionel Messi (161 million) and Neymar (139 million) in the number of followers on Instagram among athletes.

The swashbuckling batsman doesn't shy away from the limelight or from courting controversies and enjoys a massive fan following around the world. Due to the lack of cricket and subsequent training, Kohli has recently been more active on Instagram, and the rise in his fan following on the social networking app could be attributed to that.

Virat Kohli, who is considered as the poster boy of Indian cricket, will next be seen in action in the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League, which will finally begin on 19th September and stretch until the second week of November. The IPL was due to be held earlier in the year but was continuously delayed because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Virat Kohli:The Best in World pic.twitter.com/OeS19QIZ06

— Ram (@edgbaston_149) July 27, 2020

Cristiano Ronaldo reigns supreme across all platforms, Virat Kohli still ahead of LeBron James

Juventus superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, meanwhile, rules the roost across all social networking platforms - including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The former Real Madrid man has over 440 million followers across the three major social networking platforms.

Ronaldo is so far ahead of the competition in terms of social media popularity that it makes for ridiculous numbers. The 35-year-old has 189 million more followers than closest rival Lionel Messi, although, in defence of the diminutive Argentine, the Barcelona talisman does not have an account on Twitter.

If the three major social networking platforms are taken into consideration, Virat Kohli (144.2 million) is still ahead of LeBron James (138.8 million) - again, by a small margin - albeit finds himself behind the footballing trio of Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi (251 million across Facebook and Instagram) and Neymar (245.9 million).

It is no surprise that footballers have more social media followers compared with Virat Kohli, because of the ubiquitous nature of the beautiful game compared to cricket, which has a limited audience base as only a handful of countries participate on the international level.