Tendulkar, Sehwag lead wishes on Kohli's birthday

Kolkata, Nov 5 (IANS) Indian cricket legends Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag led Twitterites in wishing Indian Test skipper Virat Kohli, who turned 28 on Saturday.

Among the billion wishes that flooded the social networking forum after midnight on Friday with #WeLoveYouKohli and #HappyBirthdayVirat fast trending top of the charts, Tendulkar wrote on Saturday morning, "Happy Birthday @imVkohli! To the most (shararati guy) in our team, stay the way you are always!"

With around 12.7 million followers on Twitter, 8.3 million on Instagram and 32 million on Facebook, the Test skipper got the right kind of wish from former India opener Sehwag who tweeted, "Haazme ki Goli, Rangon ki Holi, Gujarat me Ghagra Choli Aur Batting mein Virat Kohli Poore India ko pasand hai #HappyBirthdayVirat @imVkohli."

Known as India's run-machine and at times only saviour especially in One-Day Internationals (ODI) ever since he made his international debut in 2008, the Delhi right-hander has been formidable in all three formats of the game.

Over the last couple of years, his formidable batting has reached peaks that few batsmen have scaled.

With Kohli taking over as the full-time Test captain from Mahendra Singh Dhoni in 2015, India's fortunes have also changed dramatically. Under Kohli's captaincy, they have won four consecutive series.

India coach Anil Kumble tweeted, "Happy birthday @imVkohli. Hope you have a fantastic year ahead. Wish you the best of everything. @BCCI."

"Wishing you a very happy birthday bro. Hope you have a great day and even a better year. Cheers @imVkohli," tweeted teammate Ajinkya Rahane.

Opener Shikhar Dhawan posted a cheeky picture of the two on a flight, tweeting, "Wish you a very happy birthday bro @imVkohli. Have a good one. Rab Rakha!!"

Even Gautam Gambhir, who has had differences with Kohli in the past with tempers flaring between the two infamously in an Indian Premier League (IPL) game, keyed in.

"Happy Birthday @imVkohli. Have a blessed year ahead; hoping to see you smash many more records along the way."

Former India opener-turned-commentator Aakash Chopra reserved the best tweet for Kohli.

"Run Machine, Consistent...all have ten alphabets and so has Virat Kohli. New synonyms. Happy Birthday ?? #ModernGreat."

--IANS

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