KARACHI: Pakistan’s star wicket-keeper Mohammad Rizwan praised Indian batter Virat Kohli for his affectionate and humble attitude off the field as he opened up on his meeting with Kohli after winning the T20 World Cup match against India last year.
“It was the first time I was meeting Kohli. The kind of things I had heard about him, other players also told me ‘Virat is aggressive and all’. But the way he met me before and after the match, it was amazing,” said Rizwan in an interview on the Youtube channel Cricket Baaz with Waheed Khan
“We all belong to the cricket family. If I call him ‘our Virat Kohli’, it is correct in the sense,” he added.
Last year, the pictures and videos of Rizwan went viral as he joyfully hugged the Indian captain and shared words with him after Pakistan thrashed India by 10 wickets first time in a world cup match.
Rizwan to date had not disclosed the chat he had with Kohli, however, admiring the attitude of Indian players, he disclosed that both teams had very different attitudes off-field and on-field.
“Obviously, when we enter the ground, no one is a star. There we have no brotherhood or anything of that sort. But outside the field, when we met Kohli, and some of our players also met MS Dhoni, we met with a lot of love and affection,” claimed Rizwan.
The wicket-keeper also opined about the quality time he spent with Indian test player Cheteshwar Pujara, both were representing Sussex in the County season.
“Even in County cricket, where Pujara is with me, believe me, we live with so much love. In fact, I am the one who keeps bugging him, calling him out. He keeps laughing,” he shared.
While expressing his views on bilateral Test matches between India and Pakistan, Rizwan claimed that players of both teams wanted to play against each other but complications at the top were not under their control.
“..He [Pujara] as far as I understood also wanted to play against Pakistan. But there must be difficulties at the top that are beyond our knowledge, otherwise, we [players] want Test, ODI, and T20 series against them [India],” Rizwan concluded.
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