Virat Kohli and Glenn Maxwell are friends now, but they didn’t like each other in the past. The Australian all-rounder has revealed in his book, The Showman, that the Indian player backed his inclusion in the Royal Challengers Bengaluru team after his association with Punjab King ended.

He thanked the former RCB captain for his support. Four years before they became teammates in IPL, an incident forced Virat to block Maxwell on Instagram.

RCB bought him for INR 14.25 crore ahead of IPL 2021, making the team’s batting unit one of the most destructive in the tournament’s history. With Kohli, AB de Villiers, and Maxwell, RCB proved to be unstoppable.

Maxwell scored over 500 runs for the franchise in that season, and the team made it to the playoffs and finished third.

However, before that, Kohli was unhappy with Glenn Maxwell for an incident that happened in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 2017.

“When I joined RCB, Virat was the first guy to welcome me. During the practice sessions, we spend a lot of time together. I was following him on social media but couldn’t find his profile one day,” Maxwell said on the LiSTNR Sport podcast.

“I knew he was there on social media but his profile was not showing up. Someone told me that he might have blocked you. This is the only reason you are not able to find him. I didn’t believe that person.”

During Australia’s tour of India, the players exchanged a lot of words, with Maxwell mocking Virat. Ishant Sharma took on Steve Smith, who was also slammed for taking the help of the dressing room for a DRS call.

On the first day of the third Test in Ranchi, Kohli was hurt while fielding. When Australia was fielding, Maxwell made fun of Virat and copied Virat’s style of clutching his shoulder. Kohli missed the final game in Dharamsala because of the injury and didn’t forgive Maxwell for his reaction.

“I asked him if he has blocked me. He said yes. Kohli told me about the incident when I mocked him and he decided to block me on Instagram. He ended up unblocking me after a while and we became great friends after that.”

RCB will retain Virat, but Glenn Maxwell is likely to be released ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auction.