The camaraderie between Virat Kohli and Glenn Maxwell, both on and off the field is there for everyone to see. But, would you believe the former India captain once blocked the Australian hard-hitting all-rounder? In a stunning revelation, Maxwell, who plays for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) alongside Kohli in the Indian Premier League (IPL), stated that the Indian star batter had actually blocked him in 2017.
The incident dates back to when Australia toured India for the Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) seven years back. Both teams came to Ranchi for the third Test with the scoreline reading 1-1. On the opening day of the Ranchi Test, Kohli hurt his shoulder while fielding.
However, Maxwell made fun of Kohli by imitating the then-Indian skipper and clutched his right shoulder during Australia’s fielding. This angered Kohli. “When I knew that I was going to RCB, Virat was the first guy to message me and welcome me to the team,” Maxwell said on the LiSTNR Sport podcast.
“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,” he added
Maxwell had no idea why he couldn’t find Kohli on Instagram until one of his RCB teammates suggested he might have been blocked. “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,” added the Australian superstar.
How did the ice break between Kohli & Maxwell?
For the unknown, it was Kohli who wanted Maxwell in RCB as the franchise shelled out a whopping ₹14.25 crore on the Australian all-rounder just before IPL 2021. With the addition of Maxwell, RCB turned into the most destructive batting units of that time with Kohli and AB de Villiers already in the line-up.
Maxwell didn’t disappoint Kohli. The right-hander pummeled 513, 310 and 400 runs in the 2021, 2022 and 2023 seasons of IPL respectively for RCB. Meanwhile, it was Maxwell who confronted Kohli with the most difficult question.
“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,” said Maxwell.