Indian cricket stars’ successful wives, girlfriends hit Sydney ahead of tour
Their husbands have hit the ground running scoring a last-minute victory in the T20 against Australia in the SCG. Now the wives and girlfriends of the Indian cricket team will join them. GALLERY
Sydney is about to get bowled over by Bollywood, with the WAGS of the Indian cricket team soon to hit the city for six.
With their husbands escalated to demigod status in India, the wives and girlfriends are giving their sporting spouses a run for their money — coveted by big brands, dressed in designer threads and bringing their millions of adoring social media followers along for the ride.
Described as an Indian “super brand” Bollywood beauty Anushka Sharma and her cricket captain husband Virat Kohli are a marketing powerhouse known collectively as “Virushka”.
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One of the highest-paid movie stars in India, who juggles life as a WAG with being a film producer, fashion designer and model, Sharma commands up to $293,000 per branded Instagram post according to Business Today India.
Together, the pair are a marketing machine who endorse around 28 brands across all marketing categories between them.
Kohli endorses 18 high-end labels including Audi, Tissot and MRF while Sharma has 10 ambassadorships with brands such as Polaroid, Pepsi and her own apparel brand, Nush.
With 20 million fans following her every move on Instagram, Sharma has graced the cover of every prestigious fashion magazine worth mentioning, shooting for Harper’s Bazaar, Elle and Grazia in the last two months alone.
Her three main movies are amongst the biggest money-makers ever in Bollywood — sports drama Sultan, religious satire PK and biopic Sanju.
But in the style stakes, fast bowler Umesh Yadav’s fashion designer wife Tanya Wadhwa’s gives Sharma some hot competition.
One of the most glamorous and fashionable WAGs on tour and credited with curating her cricketer husband’s wardrobe, the pair are prolific on social media and enjoy travelling and showing off their designer threads.
Describing her cricketing husband as her “backbone,” Wadhwa travels the world posting selfies from glamorous locations like Austria, Venice, Mykonos and New York and following Yadav’s achievements from the sidelines.
Indian-born, Australian-raised Ayesha Mukherjee is a WAG who will particularly relish life on tour Down Under.
The amateur boxer who grew up in Australia is married to Skirhar Dhawan, one of the most prolific players of the Indian cricket team.
The pair juggle their two kids with their home decor brand DaOne Home, which blends “luxury with love”.
On the sporting front, Ishant Sharma’s wife Pratima Singh and Dinesh Karthik’s wife Dipika Pallikal know all too well the highs and lows of a professional sporting career.
With brands like Samsung and Adidas begging to work with her, Pallikal is one of India’s top female squash players.
Having won a silver medal at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games this year, Pallikal was the first Indian to break into the top 10 in the PSA Women’s rankings.
Singh, a member of the India women’s national basketball team, hails from family of athletes with her family known as the ‘basketball family of India’.
A proud feminist, she also spends her time schooling her followers on financial independence and why “girls are not born to do only house work”.
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