New Delhi: Virat Kohli doesn’t top opposition on the cricket field only he beats them in other segments. Virat Kohli is currently in Australia preparing for the limited overs series Down Under. India play three ODIs beginning November 27 followed by three T20 games.
Well Kohli has emerged as the leader in Twitter charts in October as far as Indian sportspersons are concerned. And strangely his predecessor Mahendra Singh Dhoni who has 8.1 million followers on Twitter does not feature on the list. In fact Kohli is third among all Indians in Twitter engagements for October.
According to ‘Twitteet’, a social media analytics firm, Kohli had 24,65,918 Twitter engagements in October. The most number of Twitter engagement was by India Prime Minister Narendra Modi (72,15,913) followed by Rahul Gandhi (35,53,825). Kohli was behind them.
“The IPL was the flavour of the season for cricketers where expectedly India captain and expectant father Virat Kohli topped Twitter engagement with 2.4 million engagements. Suresh Raina was at #2 with 1.9 million engagements,” said a press release by Twiteet.
“Former stars Sachin Tendulkar at #3, Harbhajan Singh at #5, and Virendra Sehwag at #6, actively engage with fans and followers on Twitter with 1.5 million; 6.8 lakh and 6.3 lakh engagements. Aakash Chopra, now a commentator is also hugely popular and ranks #4 with over 9.65 lakh engagements on Twitter in October,” the press release said.
Among sportspersons outside of cricket, Olympic medallist and professional boxer Vijender Singh topped the list with 4.27 lakh engagements last month. However, the No.2 position went to someone who will definitely be a surprise for all and sundry.
The second spot was taken by the 88-year old Dadi Chandro Tomar, a veteran shooter. It should be stated here that a Hindi movie was made on Chandro Tomar’s life. The movie had Taapsee Pannu and Bhumi Pednekar in the lead roles.
“She was at #2 in the non-cricket sports category with a phenomenal 2.84 lakh engagements leaving superstars like Saina Nehwal, Babita Phogat and Jwala Gutta behind,” said the release.
The veteran pistol shooter is also a coach and sports enthusiast. Tomar is better known as ‘Shooter Dadi’ from Baghpat, UP. Since learning to shoot when she was well into her sixties she has won more than 30 national championships.