MUMBAI: Virat Kohli has not played a bad shot. He has not dropped a catch. He has not said anything remotely controversial. All he has allegedly done is tap a ‘like’ on an Instagram post and that, apparently, is quite enough to set Indian cricket’s vast and excitable internet on fire.
Eagle-eyed fans noticed that Kohli’s verified Instagram account had ‘liked’ a post by LizLaz, a German-South African travel vlogger, singer and YouTuber who has built a considerable following in India through her content documenting her travels across the country. Screenshots spread across Reddit and X within seconds. The speculation, predictably, followed close behind.
And then Yuzvendra Chahal arrived with one word. The Punjab Kings leg-spinner, who has made something of a second career out of being cricket’s most reliably witty presence on social media, dropped a comment on the post that read simply: “Algorithm 💀.” It racked up 8,662 likes. The dressing room, it seems, has a long memory.
The joke, of course, is a direct callback to May 2025, when Kohli’s account was found to have ‘liked’ a photo of Indian actress and model Avneet Kaur. That incident spiralled into a full-blown debate before Kohli felt compelled to issue a public clarification. “I’d like to clarify that while clearing my feed, it appears the algorithm may have mistakenly registered an interaction,” he said at the time. “There was absolutely no intent behind it. I request that no unnecessary assumptions be made.”
The statement did not entirely put the matter to rest then, and its ghost has now returned to haunt him. Fans this time round are split between those gleefully awaiting a second algorithm disclaimer and those defending Kohli as the victim of an accidental scroll, a phenomenon hardly unique to international cricketers. “Chain se like bhi ni krne deta ye samaaj,” wrote one fan on Instagram, loosely meaning that society will not even let him like in peace. “Relax guys, it’s algorithm,” wrote another.
Chahal, for his part, has his own headlines to contend with: actress Taniya Chatterjee has made public claims regarding Instagram direct messages involving the cricketer, to which he has yet to officially respond.
On the pitch, meanwhile, Kohli has been in imperious form for Royal Challengers Bengaluru this IPL season. In their most recent match against Lucknow Super Giants, he played as an Impact Player for the first time in his career, fell one run short of a fifty, and still did enough to help RCB to a comfortable victory.
One accidental like. One word from a teammate. And the entire machinery of Indian cricket fandom, briefly but thoroughly, ground to a halt. The algorithm, it turns out, is the gift that keeps giving.
