Virat Kohli's brand value increases by 39%; retains his No.1 spot in global brand valuation

That Virat Kohli is the biggest brand of International cricket will not be the slightest aberration to say. The Indian captain continues to break and form new records- both as a batsman as well as a leader- every time he steps onto a cricket field.

Kohli is currently leading his Men in Blue on their tour to New Zealand where he has capped off a plethora of records as captain by becoming the first player to lead his side to a 5-0 whitewash in T20I cricket. And, on Thursday, the charismatic cricketer once again confirmed his status as the leading brand in the country by retaining his numero-uno spot as far as India’s number one brand celebrity icon is concerned, for the third consecutive year.

According to a study done by a global advisory firm ‘Duff and Phelps’ titled Celebrity Brand Valuation Study 2019: “New is Gold”, Kohli saw his brand value rise by a whopping 39% to $237.5 million, which is more than twice the second-placed Akshay Kumar, whose brand value is $104.5 million

Dhoni, Tendulkar and Rohit are the other Indian cricketers in the top 20

Apart from Virat Kohli, other cricketers in the list of top 20 include Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar at 15th spot with an overall valuation of $25.1 million. Former Indian captain MS Dhoni, who hasn’t played an international match since July 2019 finds himself at the ninth spot [$41.2 million] while vice-captain Rohit Sharma is placed at the 20th spot with an overall brand value of $23 million.

Virat Kohli once again had a stupendous time- both with the bat as well as the leader- in 2019.  The 31-year-old emerged as the leading run-scorer (2455) across all the three formats of the game for the fourth consecutive calendar year. And, while he couldn’t lead India to World Cup glory thanks to a heart-wrenching loss to New Zealand in the semi-final, Kohli still had enough reasons to smile as a leader.

Besides leading his country to their maiden Test series win on Australian soil, he presided over maiden bilateral ODI series win Down Under followed by India’s first ODI series win in New Zealand since 2009.