Test captain Virat Kohli and star batsman Rohit Sharma became first Indian sportspersons to join the acclaimed athlete media company 'Unscriptd' that helps professional athletes create and publish their unfiltered personal stories in short-form video.
The cricket superstars are now in the elite league of global sporting icons like Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo and FC Barcelona's Lionel Messi. Ronaldo's first Unscriptd video in January featuring a behind the scenes tour of his house achieved more than 30 million views in its first week of release.
Both athletes have released their first short videos using Unscriptd's proprietatry publishing platform, and have connected with their fans in India and across the globe.
In his debut video, Kohli shares the best advice he received from a coach to date, while Rohit spoke about his cricket idol, Sachin Tendulkar. Within 48 hours of being shared on social media, the videos received a combined total of more than 900,000 views.
As the second most popular sport globally, cricket has seen a tremendous increase in popularity on social media. Virat Kohli has 34.1 million fans on Facebook and Twitter, and is the most followed active cricketer, while he (Virat) has 2 million followers on Instagram, the only cricketer to reach that figure.
Rohit Sharma has 11.7 million followers on Twitter & Facebook, and 665k followers on Instagram. Making them two of the most followed global athletes. Both athletes joined 'Unscriptd' to share their personal stories through short-form video and to amplify their global reach.
"Unscriptd is enjoying explosive growth, and in the lead up to the T20 World Cup and Indian Premier League, both in India, we're thrilled to announce the addition of two of the worlds best and most popular cricketers to Unscriptd," said Brent Scrimshaw, CEO of Unscriptd.
(REOPENS DEL 18)
"Whenever KL Rahul has played, he has filled in opener's slot but when it comes to keeping Wriddhiman is our first-choice keeper. His batting has also improved a lot and we are backing him. In Test matches, when it comes to half-chances, you need a specialist keeper who can execute catches properly. A part-time keeper will find this situation harder. We will think about Rahul if Saha is injured as then we will also have to make our middle-order strong," Kohli explained.
A 4-0 clean sweep against the West Indies can put India atop ICC Test Rankings and Kohli was asked if that was something he and his team was aiming for.
"Our target is not to become No 1 in Tests. I don't think any team plays for the sake of rankings. The main goal is to play good cricket. Even if you are No 1 in rankings and don't play for a long time, you can become No 2 and you will have no control over it. All we can control is the kind of cricket we will be playing," said Kohli.
"These (rankings) things are like by-products. It's an incentive for good performance and we can celebrate it. The aim is to execute our plans taking one Test match at a time. This is a big season and it will help us build a rhythm. Otherwise, you play two Tests and then don't play for six months, there is no rhythm."
Kohli also spoke about how the batting group has worked hard and is prepared for all eventualities with specific skill practice, including countering reverse swing and playing sweep shots.
"From the last Test series (against South Africa), we have learnt a lot. We have addressed issues like not losing wickets just before or after the break. You would want to dominate the game and losing early wickets means that you are always playing a catch-up game," Kohli added.
