A study shows Virat Kohli as the most-searched cricketer in the world

The superstar culture has always prevailed in Indian cricket. From Sunil Gavaskar to Kapil Dev, from Sachin Tendulkar to MS Dhoni, there is always a lad who has all cameras behind him. The poster boy of Indian cricket currently is none other than the skipper himself, Virat Kohli. The captain, since the day he has joined the Indian team, is known for wearing his heart on his sleeve and his fans absolutely love that.

The 31-year-old is women’s prime attraction in cricket and his magnificent fitness have just added the icing on the cake. The right-hander is often regarded as the best batsman on the planet and his popularity can be judged on the basis of the number of brands he endorses as compared to other cricketers. In February his brand value was counted as 237.5 million which was more than twice of any other Indian.

Kohli, Rohit and Dhoni are the most searched cricketers in the world

The same was recently reaffirmed when a study said that the Indian Captain is the most popular cricketer in the world. Also, the India is the most popular cricket team in the world. Virat was searched 16.2 lakh times from January to mid 2020 this year and the ‘Men in Blue’ were searched 2.4 lakh time in the same duration. His deputy Rohit Sharma and former Indian captain MS Dhoni were the other two cricketers in the top three as per the SEMrush study.

Other cricketers among the top 10, as per the study, were Rohit Sharma, MS Dhoni, Hardik Pandya, Sachin Tendulkar and Shreyas Iyer. From January to June 2020, each cricketer, respectively, was searched an average of 9.7, 9.4, 6.7, 5.4 and 3.4 lakh times.

For the teams, India led the table with England, Australia, West Indies, Pakistan, South Africa, Bangladesh, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Ireland, Afghanistan, and Zimbabwe following it with search results of 0.66, 0.33, 0.29, 0.23, 0.16, 0.12,
0.12, 0.09, 0.05, 0.04, and 0.03 lakh times respectively.

Smriti Mandhana and Ellyse Perry was on 12th and 20th rank respectively

The SEMrush Head of Communications has said that the results are not surprising but interestingly the number of times women cricketers have been searched is a positive sign for a previously man-only-sport. The recent trend shows that cricket fans have shown interest in women’s cricket as Smriti Mandhana and Ellyse Perry were on 12th and 20th rank respectively. They went past famous cricketers like Yuvraj Singh and Shikhar Dhawan as well.

“While we are not entirely surprised by the results of our study, we are excited nonetheless. Finding that Virat Kohli is the most searched cricketer and India the most searched cricket team is not surprising. What’s surprising is that women cricketers are being searched more often than a lot of top-rated men,” Fernando Angulo, Head of Communications, SEMrush said.

“Our study suggests that stereotypes of cricket as a man-only sport no longer hold. There is considerable enthusiasm about women cricketers and women playing cricket. In the future, there are likely to be many more women playing cricket; and India, as the most important cricket-playing nation, is likely to supply many of them,” he added.