“While I am grateful and indebted to all that I’ve received in life, the news that has been making rounds about my social media earnings is not true,” Kohli tweeted on Saturday morning.

StockGro, a Bengaluru-based trading and investing company, had shared a detailed description of Kohli’s assets, revenue, and investments in June. As per the data, with the company citing Forbes, DNA, MPL, Startuptalky as their source, Kohli has a staggering net worth of INR 1050 crores. It stated that Kohli per post charge on Instagram is a gobsmacking ₹8.9 crore on Instagram and ₹2.5 crore on X (formerly Twitter), which rounds up his social media income to a whopping ₹11.5 crore.

Kohli is one of the biggest names in Indian cricket and such is his influence that even tennis legend Roger Federer, football icons Sergio Ramos and Wayne Rooney among others follow the talismanic cricketer on Instagram. With 253 million followers, 224 million more than current Indian skipper Rohit Sharma, it won’t be wrong to call Kohli the face of Indian cricket.

As per the provided data, Kohli currently occupies the 14th position with an impressive following of 255,269,526 on Instagram. His influence is reflected in his substantial earning of $1,384,000 per post on this Meta-owned social media platform. Meanwhile, Indian actor Priyanka Chopra commands a significant presence as well, amassing 88,538,623 followers on Instagram and securing the 29th rank. Her earnings stand at $532,000 per Instagram post.

In 2021, Kohli ascended from the 23rd to the 14th position, marking a remarkable progression in his Instagram influence. This year’s leap underscores his growing popularity and engagement. Notably, Kohli held the distinction of being the highest-ranking Indian on the Hopper Instagram Rich List, reaping considerable rewards of $680,000 (equivalent to over INR 5 crore) for each promotional post shared on the photo-sharing social media platform. Furthermore, in 2019, the cricketer achieved the esteemed ‘Engaged Account of the Year’ accolade, further attesting to his impactful presence online.

‘People will always have opinion’

The talismanic batter has achieved some massive feats during the course of his stellar career, but he too has witnessed his fair share of lows. Despite accumulating decent amount of runs in the international circuit, Kohli went without an international century for almost three years.

He finally end the century drought in the previous edition of Asia Cup last year and since then he has smashed back-to-back ODI hundreds in the series against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. He also notched a hundred in the recently-concluded Test series against West Indies and the Border-Gavaskar Trophy prior to it but questions around his form have always been asked.

Now in a recent interview with indianexpress.com, Kohli said he is not bothered by the critics. “People will always have opinions and judgments, but I have learned to trust my instincts and have confidence in my abilities. This self-belief has been the driving force behind all my achievements on the cricket field.”

Kohli will be one of India’s key players in the upcoming tournaments – the Asia Cup and the ODI World Cup.