Virat Kohli is one of the most adored, respected, and celebrated cricketers of all time. Virat enjoys a massive fan following and has lakhs of people looking up to him. So, it doesn't come as a surprise that with all that love and adulation also comes a lot of scrutiny. And a big example of that was when a picture of Virat with a cigarette-like substance in his mouth surfaced on social media.
Fans puzzled
Virat, who otherwise stays off social media, was caught in a frenzy when a picture of him took off on social media. Fans were left puzzled and perplexed with the 'cigarette' in his mouth. "Blud started smoking, looks like he wasn't able to cope with the loses of 11 lives lost in chinnaswamy stampede," a user shared the picture with the caption. "Is this virat kohli? is he smoking?" asked another user.
"A friend of mine worked for the RCB currently works for GT. Apparently he is a smoking addict, smokes with his wife in privacy, good for him but he has this carefully constructed health influencing persona," one more user commented.
"Why is this not shocking?" asked a social media user.
Fact check
Contrary to the claims and the speculations, that is not Virat Kohli in the picture. It is not VK but his lookalike in the picture. The picture had first surfaced in 2023 and then again in 2024 with similar claims. However, the picture is of Pawan Kumar, a known lookalike of Virat Kohli.
The picture was reportedly taken while he was exiting Kohli's restaurant. This is not the first time that a picture of Pawan Kumar has left fans in a tizzy.
Coming back to Virat Kohli, the former skipper has been keeping a low profile and spending majority of his time in London with wife, Anushka Sharma and two kids.
