Former Indian captain Virat Kohli and Serbia's Novak Djokovic have made the headlines of how they got connected. Recently, the Tennis great revealed that both athletes are in touch with each other through social media messages. Now, the Indian icon has shared a sweet anecdote of how they got connected.
Kohli is currently in Indore as he gears up for India's 2nd T20I against Afghanistan, while Djokovic is defending his Australian Open title at Melbourne Park. The Indian star was in training when he shared an anecdote of getting in touch with the Serb Tennis star.
"I got in touch with Novak 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," Kohli told bcci.tv. "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," Kohli said in a video shared by BCCI.
"When I got 50th ODI century recently, Novak Djokovic put out a story, 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," he added.
'Djokovic better at swinging the bat than we at racquet': Kohli
Djokovic was recently seen having a little Tennis session with Australian cricket star Steve Smith. While Smith took the racquet, Djokovic donned the cricket bat and played a shot. Kohli said that the Serb is better at swinging the bat than the cricketers are at playing Tennis. "I think he's way better at swinging the cricket bat than we are at swinging the tennis racquet," Kohli said. "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," he added.
"Virat Kohli and I have been texting a little bit for a few years. We never got the chance to meet in person, but it was an honour and privilege to listen to him speak nicely about me. I admire his career and his achievements. I started to play cricket. I'm not very good at it. I have a task to perfect my cricket skills before I get to India so that I don't embarrass myself when I am there," Djokovic had recently said.
