They have never met each other, but over the last few years, Virat Kohli and Novak Djokovic have forged a bond via text messages, both players have revealed.
Recently, Djokovic gave a brief glimpse into his relationship with the Indian batting maestro.
Kohli then shared a funny anecdote about his first interaction with Djokovic and lifted the curtain on their bond.
He revealed that it started with Kohli trying to message the 24-time Grand Slam on Instagram, and finding a text message from the Serbian tennis ace in his direct messages.
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“I got in touch with Novak (Djokovic) very organically. When I saw his profile on Instagram, I pressed the message button, I thought I would just message him. Then I saw his message already on my DM (Direct Message). I had never opened it. It was the first time I had opened my own messages. And he’s messaged me himself. So first I thought let me just check, maybe it’s a fake account. Then I checked again, it was legitimate. Then we got talking. We have been exchanging messages every now and then. I congratulated him for all his amazing achievements,” said Kohli in an interaction with Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) social media team on the eve of the 2nd T20I between India and Afghanistan.
“When I got 50th ODI Century recently, Novak Djokovic put out a story (on Instagram), and sent me a nice message as well so there is mutual admiration and respect – really nice to connect with global athletes who are excelling at a high level. I have a lot of respect for him and his journey… his passion for fitness is something I dearly follow myself. So there was a lot to connect on,” Kohli added.
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The cricketer added that he is looking forward to catching up with Djokovic over a cup of coffee in India. The ace cricketer also extended his best wishes to Djokovic for the first Grand Slam event of the 2023 season.
At a promotional event before the Australian Open, Djokovic tried his hand at various sports like basketball and cricket, trying his luck at batting as Australian star Steve Smith joined him to play tennis.
Commenting on Djokovic’s batting prowess, Kohli said: “I think he’s way better than swinging the cricket bat than we are at swinging the tennis racquet. I think Steve did pretty well to return his serve. When you have good hand-eye coordination, you think you can also do that. But I have seen tennis matches live, so I know how fast those serves are. But it would be nice to play tennis with Novak as well. Probably the only thing I can teach him is how to hold a cricket bat.”
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