Rishabh Pant, who has just been appointed vice-captain of the Test team, is in the news for reasons other than cricket. The 27-year-old has made it to the social media headlines after his fans noticed that he had liked several Instagram posts of a virtual influencer named Mia Zelu, a computer-generated model famous for her daring and glamorous posts. The screenshots of Pant’s Instagram activity were soon shared on social media. Although Mia Zelu has more than 145K Instagram followers, her status as an AI-generated persona fueled the buzz online.
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Fans React With Memes And Mixed Opinions
Pant’s action has evoked all kinds of reactions. Some netizens ridiculed him, labeling it the ‘digital equivalent of playing safe’ after a similar controversy surrounding Virat Kohli made headlines months back. Kohli had inadvertently liked an influencer, Avneet Kaur’s post.
One section of fans, however, came to the defense of the cricketer, contending that liking posts is not a big thing and cricketers must be given some digital liberty without judgement at every step. Whether Pant follows the AI influencer or not is also unknown since Mia Zelu has kept her list of followers private.
Being one of the most popular cricketers in the nation, Rishabh Pant is already accustomed to being closely monitored, scrutinized, and talked about, both on the field and on Instagram.
On-Field Performance of Rishabh Pant
Rishabh Pant also let his supporters down with his batting effort in the first innings of the current second Test against England at Edgbaston. Having come off twin tons in the series opener, the wicket-keeper batsman was also expected to score big once again.
But Pant scored 25 runs off 42 deliveries and left after trying a reckless shot. His wicket was seen as an avoidable loss, particularly after the form he had shown in the last game.
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