Rich, brash playboy the Aussies hate
People love Virat Kohli, the new crown prince of Indian cricket.
He has almost 25 million social media disciples and more than $15 million a year in endorsements. The legends of the game in India say he is destined to be their next great, along with being their new Test captain.
But at home, his on-field form is often linked to his performance off it - with a relationship with Bollywood beauty Anushka Sharma the subject of countless jokes and jibes.
And his fans are so fanatic, some send him letters written in their own blood.
But people also hate Virat Kohli, the brash, scowling Punjabi playboy with the sharp suits and sharper tongue.
He has shown the middle finger to Australian crowds and been slated by the Australian team for his selfish demeanour. Those divided opinions will collide again this week as Kohli leads his team into the fourth Test of a fiery series with Australia and his first as skipper.
The build-up to the Sydney Cricket Ground clash is likely to live up to Brad Haddin's fifth day sledge from the MCG when he pointedly remarked that India's game and team this summer has been "all about you - all about the one".
The wicketkeeper was not far wrong. Kohli's 499 runs, including three centuries, at an average over 80, ranks as one of the greatest visits to Australia by an Indian batsman.
And those numbers back up sage observers, who have long pointed to the confident kid from Delhi as a future superstar.
It began when his lawyer father Prem took an eight-year-old Virat and his brother Vikas, 13, to the West Delhi cricketing academy of former Ranji trophy player Rajkumar Sharma.
Within days, Sharma saw something special.
"He was a very good learner and developed tremendous power in his shots," he said. "He always wanted a lot of time in the middle and wanted to lead, always wanted to be involved. Normally children are happy to bat for 20 to 25 minutes. Not him."
Almost as soon as his talent was spotted, his reputation was set. The swagger, the ego - some loved it and said he needed it, others not so much.
"Virat was always confident, sometimes overconfident in his eagerness, that is all," Sharma said. "But he was an India player in the making from the start."
And Kohli knew it. Big runs from under-15 level won him a place on an under-19 tour to Eng-land and a first-class debut with Delhi in 2006, aged 18.
But it was on his darkest day that Kohli showed his cricket- obsessed nation just how far he would go for the game. On December 20, 2006, the teenager was woken about 4am to be told his father succumbed to a stroke a month earlier and died.
But his team was in dire straits against Karnatka and Kohli started play and scored 90 to get his side past the follow on. He left after he was out to go to his father's cremation.
"Virat changed a bit after that day," his mother Saroj Kohli said. "It was as if his life hinged totally on cricket. He looked like he was chasing his father's dream, which was his own, too."
As the tattooed tearaway's star rose as captain of the winning under-19 World Cup team, so did noise around him, good and bad.
Whispers about him not playing well with the other kids grew louder and coach Dav Whatmore warned his captain about bowling himself before the more recognised attack.
An IPL berth with the Royal Challengers Bangalore elevated Kohli to rock star status with runs and endorsements piling up. Records fell, headlines accumulated and with the golden generation of Sachin Tendulkar leaving a chasm, Kohli seemed destined, and happy, to fill it.
This week he can expect a warm welcome to this new era. Asked if it was a mistake to sledge Kohli, Australian coach Darren Lehmann said: "Ooh, no. We haven't started yet."
