Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI:Virat Kohli is usually in the spotlight for his batting brilliance – big runs, match-winning knocks and his ability to chase down targets. But this time, the star batter has grabbed attention for a different reason. Kohli, currently featuring in IPL 2026, allegedly ‘liked’ a photo of German model-influencer LizLaz.Within minutes, screenshots of the interaction spread across social media, turning a small action into a viral talking point. Interestingly, Kohli does not follow the influencer, which added to the curiosity around the incident.LizLaz, who suddenly found herself trending online, later reacted to the situation. Speaking to Hindustan Times, she said: “It was crazy because I woke up and then I was all over the news.” She also explained how she found out about it: “I don’t even know when he liked the picture, I learnt through the news. So many people found the articles done on me on many different platforms and sent them to me in my DMs. I got so many messages today, people were super excited about it.”When asked about Kohli reportedly unliking the post later, she added: “I felt a bit sorry for him actually!” She continued, “I was so happy that he liked it, but then him unliking it, I felt a bit bad for him because I don’t even know how it became such a big story. How did people notice, how did they make it news… that was probably not his intention behind it, but still I am grateful for it and I appreciate the support from him.”LizLaz also revealed that she is a fan of Kohli. “I also started traveling around all over South India, Goa, Mysore, even Coorg, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, and then also the north later. And this trip is when I got introduced to cricket as a sport. I didn’t watch it before or anything. I was born in South Africa but brought up in Germany, where the national sport is only football,” she said.“It was obviously the IPL last year, so I started watching with my Bangalorean friends. It was contagious. I was also becoming a Royal Challengers Bangalore fan. And obviously, if you support RCB, Virat Kohli is the most exciting player to watch. He’s just so good. So I was happy about him liking the picture,” LizLaz added.This is not the first time Kohli has been in the news for such incidents. Earlier, he had briefly liked a post by Avneet Kaur, which also sparked a buzz on social media.Kohli later issued a clarification, saying: “I’d like to clarify that while clearing my feed, it appears the algorithm may have mistakenly registered an interaction. There was absolutely no intent behind it. I request that no unnecessary assumptions be made. Thank you for your understanding.”
