India cricket team skipper Virat Kohli was at the receiving end of much ridicule when a picture of him standing next to tennis star Karman Kaur Thandi popped up on Twitter. The image showed Kohli standing on an elevated platform while a much taller Karman, wearing heels, stood next to him so as to make him appear taller.
Twitterati were quick to bash Kohli for standing on the platform and asking Karman, who is 6 feet tall, to stand below. Users called him out for having a “fragile ego”.
You can be anything but the woman can’t be taller than the man.
— Sanobar (@SanobarFatma) October 7, 2018
Such fragile ego.
Such vanity pic.twitter.com/tj0Omypr6g
“You can be anything but the woman can’t be taller than the man. Such fragile ego. Such vanity”, the tweet posted by Twitter user Sanobar (@SanobarFatma) read. The tweet was posted on October 7 and has garnered over 2,500 retweets and 5,000-plus likes.
Some said that Kohli, for all his on-field bravado, cannot handle the presence of a woman taller than him. They said that Kohli wouldn't have asked a woman, who was much shorter to stand on an elevated platform.
While many roasted Kohli for his “height insecurities”, others said that the post was making a mountain out of a molehill. They pointed out that the event, for which both sports stars were present, was for a watch company, and the photograph would require the celebrities to hold the watch along the same level in the frame.
Others still said that it had nothing to do with his ego, and he had posed with other tall celebrities without using a prop to stand on.
Photographers, they said, sometimes ask celebrities to stand on props to make them look taller and Kohli was not to be blamed for this faux pas. But then that theory was shot down after Twitter users tweeted a video of the event where Kohli asks Karman to stand below.
Karman had posted the video of her getting on stage before she and Kohli posed for pictures. Kohli is seen asking Karman to stand next to him while he stood on the platform.
Feeling great to be the part of the launch of special edition of @tissot_official watch in India in Mumbai last night. Big shoutout to @vkfofficial @imVkohli for this event and thanks for the limited special edition watch ...... really love it ❤😍 pic.twitter.com/2vMTumKVlg
— Karman Kaur Thandi (@KarmanThandi) September 27, 2018