Indian cricket icon Virat Kohli is as soon as once more on the middle of a social media storm, however this time it has nothing to do together with his batting. On April 17, 2026, eagle-eyed followers noticed that Kohli’s official deal with had “favored” a daring photograph of German-South African influencer LizLaz.
The interplay instantly went viral, largely as a result of Kohli doesn’t comply with the influencer, and the “like” was discovered on a put up from January.
LizLaz Reacts
The influencer on the middle of the excitement, LizLaz, who holds a Grasp’s in Psychology and is a self-proclaimed RCB fan, lastly broke her silence on the controversy. Chatting with Hindustan Instances, she expressed a mixture of pleasure and sympathy for the cricketer.
“No, I felt a bit sorry for him really!,” says Liz to HT, “I used to be so joyful that he favored it, however then him unlikeing it, I felt a bit unhealthy for him as a result of I do not even know the way it turned such a giant story. How did individuals discover, how did they make it information that was in all probability not his intention behind it, however nonetheless I’m grateful for it and I recognize the assist from him.”
“It was loopy as a result of I wakened after which I used to be everywhere in the information. I do not even know when he favored the image, I discovered by way of the information. So many individuals discovered the articles achieved on me on many alternative platforms and despatched them to me in my DMs. I acquired so many messages right now, individuals had been tremendous enthusiastic about it,” stated LizLaz to Hindustan Instances.
She added that she turned a fan of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru final 12 months whereas watching video games with buddies in India, calling Kohli the “most fun participant to observe.”
“It was clearly the IPL final 12 months, so I began watching with my Bangalorean buddies. It was contagious. I used to be additionally turning into a Royal Challengers Bangalore fan. And clearly, in case you assist RCB, Virat Kohli is probably the most thrilling participant to observe. He is simply so good. So I used to be joyful about him liking the image,” stated LizLaz.
“Algorithm” Meme Returns
Social media was immediately flooded with memes, with many followers jokingly predicting a “lengthy paragraph” coming quickly on Kohli’s Instagram Tales. This can be a callback to a 2025 incident involving actress Avneet Kaur, the place Kohli issued a public clarification attributing an unintentional “like” to a glitch whereas clearing his feed.
“Bhai, iss algorithm ka kuch karna padega” (Brother, we have to do one thing about this algorithm) turned the trending joke of the evening.
Shortly after the screenshots started circulating and the subject began trending on X (previously Twitter) and Reddit, the “like” was faraway from the put up.