Indian cricket team beat LA Lakers on Instagram with 16 million followers, fans erupt

Still absorbing their historic victory at the Gabba last month, the Indian cricket team now has one more reason to celebrate. The official page of the Indian Cricket team has nor crossed 16 million followers on the popular social networking site, Instagram. This milestone, fairly unsurprising considering the amount of love and adulation the sport receives in India, is nevertheless a huge achievement. It also makes the Indian cricket team now one of the most followed sports teams on Instagram, surpassing the current NBA champions, the LA Lakers.

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Indian cricket team beats the LA Lakers to Instagram milestone

Ahead of the highly-anticipated India vs England Test series starting on February 5, the Indian cricket team took to Instagram to thank their fans for helping them reach a massive 16 million followers on Instagram. The team's popularity has risen manyfold since their unexpected and heroic Test series victory in Australia helped them retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy for the third consecutive time. The rise in popularity of the Indian Women's cricket team has also contributed greatly to the increase in followers on this page, especially after the side made it to the finals of the ICC Women's T20 World Cup in 2020.

While 16 million is an extremely high number of followers, it does not hold a candle to what most big football teams have been able to achieve on social media. The staggering numbers are topped by Real Madrid who boast a massive 95.1 followers on Instagram. Following them with 93.4 followers is FC Barcelona, a comparatively muted 39 million for Manchester United and 29.8 for Liverpool. 

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Kohli Instagram followers vs LeBron James Instagram followers

A major attraction for people to follow teams also has to do with the presence of certain star players on the side. Madrid had Ronaldo, Barca has Messi and so on. Similarly, the Indian cricket team has captain Virat Kohli. Among the most followed sports personalities in the world, Kohli has an Instagram following of 94.4 million people. In comparison, the Lakers' star player, LeBron James has just 78.6. The most followed sports personality is Christiano Ronaldo, with 259 million followers on Instagram alone.

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India vs England 1st Test 

The Indian cricket team is sure to attract some more attention as they prepare to take on England in their first Test series at home in almost a year and a half. The 4-Test series will be split between Chennai and Ahmedabad, with the white ball series taking place entirely in the latter venue. The 1st India vs England Test will begin on February 5. 

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Image Credits: BCCI Twitter