‘Virat Kohli, bruh, you might need to call me’: Cricket-crazy Speed tries to reach out to the Indian legend
The popular gamer hit the bull’s eye and immediately launched an impassioned appeal to Virat Kohli.
If Darren Jason Watkins Jr, popularly known IShowSpeed or Speed, was trying to reach out to the Indian audience yet again, one has to say he has succeeded in a speedy way.

Those who don’t know who he is, he is a YouTuber, streamer and rapper. On YouTube, he boasts a following of almost 55 million (5.5 crore in Indian speak). A video has now gone viral wherein Speed can be seen bowling, rather throwing.
It appears the video has been shot in the Caribbean. Speed is wearing a yellow tee with Antigua and Barbuda printed at the front. He is at the non-striker’s end and watches West Indian pacer Alzaari Joseph bowl way outside the off-stump. Disclaimer: he may not be Joseph. It may be someone else.
The 21-year-old influencer then decides to have a shot of his own at the stumps. And guess what? He does it in style. Bull’s eye! Though his bowling action is not legal by any means. He appears more like a fielder who picks up the ball and throws down the stumps in the blink of an eye. Speed, however, can be heard shouting, “I might be the greatest. Virat Kohli, call me… ICC call me, Mumbai cricket team call me.
“Virat Kohli, bruh, you might need to call me.”
Speed is a big fan of football star Cristiano Ronaldo. By the way, Kohli is also a Ronaldo fan. You can connect the dots. But it was a bit too much to think he was good enough to play in the IPL!
But why didn't he say RCB?
But why did he say, Mumbai cricket team, why not Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB)? It’s obvious that he has limited information on the great Indian batsman. That he took the name of Mumbai Indians might be down to the fact that Joseph played for the IPL franchise a few years ago.
Kieron Pollard, a legend at the Mumbai franchise, is also a West Indian, so maybe Speed knows the franchise through him.
Speed is famous for his chaotic and energetic production across platforms. Despite dabbling in many things, he is primarily considered a gamer. It appears that with this cricket content, he has yet again tried to reach out to the 1.5 billion-strong Indian audience.
A US citizen, Speed was also in attendance during the India-Pakistan T20 World Cup match in New York in 2024. He was particularly cheering for Kohli. When the Indian batter hit Naseem Shah for a four, his joy knew no bounds. However, when Shah sent him back to the dug-out shortly after, Speed was left stunned.
ABOUT THE AUTHORPrateek SrivastavaPrateek Srivastava is a senior sports journalist having been in the profession for two decades now. He started his print career with the India Today Group and later also worked for the Asian Age. In 2009, sensing the wind of change, he switched to the digital media and joined Mobile ESPN. There, he covered the 2011 Cricket World Cup and 2010 Hockey World Cup as a venue reporter. He did plenty of voice-over work too, over there. After leaving Mobile ESPN, Prateek went on to work for Cricketnext, Gocricket and Cricbuzz. At Gocricket (Times Internet Limited), he covered the 2014 T20 World from Bangladesh. There he also received a team leadership award, given at the end of the month. Prateek has also covered the 2016 T20 World Cup in India, this time working for Sportz Interactive. He also worked for Chinese giants Alibaba over two years and led their ""Short News"" content team at UC Browser. While cricket is Prateek’s expertise, he has also done a lot of golf. In fact, he has covered India’s first two European Tour events back in the late noughties. He has also done extensive writing on football having been associated with the Indian Super League for three seasons. Finally, Prateek is a literature aficionado and swears by Philip Roth and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and when he doesn’t joke, he is usually quiet and at work.Read More



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