Virat Kohli and Glenn Maxwell may be friends now, but their relationship was mostly frosty at one time. Maxwell, the Australian all-rounder, in his recently-released book titled ‘The Showman’ revealed how Kohli backed and vouched for the Australian power-hitter’s inclusion in the Royal Challengers Bengaluru set-up after his controversial time with Punjab Kings, and thanked the former RCB captain for his support. However, four years before they became teammates, an incident between the two forced Kohli to block Maxwell on Instagram.
Ahead of IPL 2021, RCB acquired the services of Maxwell for a whopping INR 14.25 crore, which made the franchise one of the most destructive batting units in the IPL. With Kohli, AB de Villiers and Maxwell in the middle order, RCB seemed unbeatable on paper. Maxwell pummeled over 500 runs that season, his efforts culminating in RCB reaching the Playoffs and finishing third. However, before their relationship prospered, Kohli was upset with a certain behaviour of Maxwell’s dating back to the 2017 Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
“When I knew that 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. So I go to his social. media, follow him. Didn’t even think about it before that. Never really crossed my mind. I was like ‘I can’t find him,” Maxwell said on the LiSTNR Sport podcast.
“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.”
Did you block me? ‘Yeah, probably because you mocked me’
What had actually happened was that when Australia toured India for one of the hottest Test series of all time, Maxwell had taken a jibe at Kohli. Tempers flared in both camps throughout the course of the series. Who can forget the sight of Ishant Sharma making ridiculous faces at Steve Smith or when the former Australian captain’s brain fade moment led to him consulting the dressing room for a DRS referral?
On the opening day of the third Test in Ranchi, Kohli hurt his shoulder while fielding, but two days later, when it was Australia’s turn to field, Maxwell made fun of Kohli. Maxwell aped the former India captain as he clutched his right shoulder. Kohli had to miss the final Test match in Dharamsala because of the injury, and given the competitive nature of the four-Test series, it was inevitable that Kohli would have taken in kindly.
“Then 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. I was like ‘yeah, that’s fair enough’. So yeah, he ended up unblocking me, and we became great friends after that,” added Maxwell.
Having said that, Kohli and Maxwell have mellowed over time, and understandably so. Having gone through a range of similar experiences, the two superstars of their respective countries have bonded in more ways than one.
“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. 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’.”
