New Delhi: Australia all-rounder Glenn Maxwell revealed that he was blocked by star India batter Virat Kohli for mocking his shoulder injury back in 2017 during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy held in India.
Maxwell was speaking at the Willow Talk Podcast.
Speaking at the podcast, Maxwell revealed that he was welcomed well by the Indian superstar when he joined the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) camp in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021. He said that after having a chat with his then skipper in training camp, he tried to find him on social media but could not find him.
"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, to follow him. Did not even think about it before that. Never really crossed my mind. I was like 'I cannot find him'," said Maxwell.
He revealed that someone mentioned to him that Virat probably had blocked him and after asking him, it was indeed the case. It was because Maxwell had mocked Virat's shoulder injury during the third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Ranchi.
"I am sure he is on social media somewhere so I did not think anything of it. Not really that maybe he was not savvy with Instagram. Did not really understand why he was not coming up and then someone mentioned that he might have blocked you. That is the only way you are not able to find him. I was like surely not," Maxwell added.
"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 was like 'yeah, that's fair enough'. So yeah, he ended up unblocking me, and we became great friends after that," concluded Maxwell.
Since joining RCB, Maxwell has played 52 matches for the franchise, scoring 1,266 runs at an average of 28.77 and a strike rate of 159.25, having smashed 12 fifties for the side with the best score of 78. As the IPL retentions will be announced on Thursday, all eyes will be on RCB if Maxwell is retained by them.
—ANI