Former Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi was not impressed by Virat Kohli as he believes that Indian batter should have responded to Babar Azam’s post in which he was extending support to the former India captain. Kohli, who is still one of the best in the business was supported by current Pakistan captain Babar Azam following his prolonged bad form. The veteran batter has been rested for India’s upcoming tour of West Indies in which they will play ODI and T20I series.
Kohli has scored only 158 runs in 7 ODI matches so far in 2022 and is currently struggling for runs in the short-format as well. On Thursday (July 14), Kohli was dismissed for 16 off 25 balls in the second ODI between India and England. After Kohli’s dismissal, Babar posted a picture of himself with Kohli captioning it, “This too shall pass. Stay strong.”
India faced a horror 100-run defeat against England in the second ODI of the 3-match series. However, Shahid Afridi was impressed with Babar’s gesture and said that Kohli should have responded to the post.
The more we back him, the better.
Babar Azam doubles down on his support for Virat Kohli. #ViratKohli #BabarAzam pic.twitter.com/ZYHQyYtu6s
— SportsViz (@viz_sports) July 16, 2022
“Be it cricket or any other sport, it improves relations (between countries). Athletes can do a much better job at it than politicians and a number of them are doing the same,” Afridi told SAMAA TV.
“Babar has given across an incredible message. I don’t know if there has been a response from the other side. I think Virat should have responded by now. It would be a very big thing if there is a response to Babar’s tweet, but I don’t think that is going to happen,” he added.
Despite the bad run of form, Kohli is still the third best ODI batter as per the ICC rankings behind Pakistan’s Babar Azam and Imam ul Haq. However, the veteran batter was backed by his skipper Rohit Sharma as well, who said that Kohli just needs a couple of innings to get back to the very best player that he is.
