Virat Kohli is more in the news for his batting, but he is also killing it off the field. What Kohli does as a cricketer is brilliant and it's hardly surprising that his value is going up as well in the world of brands.
His brand value has risen by a whopping 39% to $237.5 million in 2019. This study was conducted by global advisory firm Duff and Phelps.
It ranks India's most powerful celebrity brands based on their values calculated from endorsement contracts.
Kohli maintains the top position for the third consecutive year in their study and is ahead of the likes of Bollywood stars Akshay Kumar, Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh and Shah Rukh Khan. Akshay has seen a massive jump of 55.3% to take second place with a brand value of USD 104.5 million.
2019 was another great year for Virat Kohli. He finished the year as the leading run getter in international cricket across formats with 2455 runs. This in fact was the fourth straight year in which Virat finished as the leading international run scorer.?
He had seven centuries in 2019, with a career high Test score of 254 not out. He also captained the Indian team to the semi-finals of the ICC ODI World Cup, where the men in blue were handed a heartbreaking loss by the Kiwis.
The other sportspersons in the top 20 celebrity brand valuation list are all cricketers. Former Indian skipper MS Dhoni is in 9th place, climbing three places from 2018, with a brand value of USD 41.2 million. Sachin Tendulkar is in 15th place for 2019 and Rohit Sharma is in 20th place on the list.
Dynamic Bollywood power couple, Ranveer and Deepika claimed the joint third spot with a brand value of $93.5m each. Deepika retained her most valuable female celebrity status for the second straight year. Ranveer meanwhile moved up one place, to occupy the same position as Deepika.
The total value of the top 20 celebrity brands is $1.1 billion, with the top 10 contributing about 75% of the total value.