After Pakistan captain Babar Azam's tweet on out-of-form India batter Virat Kohli shook the internet, the Lahore-born cricketer explained the rationale behind his post.
The Pakistan cricket star said the main reason behind his tweet was to support Virat Kohli, who remains one of the best players in the world despite his ongoing lean patch with the bat.
Babar Azam took to the micro-blogging platform early on Friday to back Virat Kohli as he posted a picture with Virat Kohli before captioning it: “This too shall pass, stay strong.”
This too shall pass. Stay strong. #ViratKohli pic.twitter.com/ozr7BFFgXt
— Babar Azam (@babarazam258) July 14, 2022
Within minutes his post was trending big on Twitter as several Indian cricket fans hailed him for supporting Virat Kohli during his tough times.
“As a player myself, I know you can go through such a phase (out of form) and I also know what a player goes through in such a phase. In those times, you need support. I just tweeted thinking that it will give just some support. He is one of the best players,” Babar Azam said during a press conference on the eve of Pakistan's first Test against Sri Lanka at Galle.
“He is playing a lot of cricket and he knows how to come out of these situations. It takes time, if you back players, it will be really good,” Babar Azam added.
Babar Azam’s words of encouragement for Virat Kohli came after he was dismissed for 16 in the second match of India’s ODI series against England at Lord’s on Thursday. Virat Kohli had missed the first ODI due to a groin injury.
The opportunity was there for Virat Kohli to hit a big hundred and bring the Men in Blue out of a deep hole after Team India had lost their captain Rohit Sharma for a duck early in the innings.
Instead, he made the usual mistake of poking at a wide off-stump delivery only to be caught behind by wicketkeeper and England captain Jos Buttler off the bowling of David Willey at the Mecca of cricket in the British capital.
According to ESPNCricinfo, more than 84 percent of Virat Kohli’s dismissals since 2019 have been on balls bowled outside the off-stump.
Before Virat Kohli joined the Rohit Sharma-led Team India in the second ODI, he featured in two T20I games against England but could only register scores of 1 and 11 in his innings at Edgbaston and Trent Bridge respectively.
Virat Kohli also took part in the fifth and fifth final Test against the Three Lions at Birmingham but couldn’t reignite his form as he was dismissed for 11 and 20 in his two knocks there.
Virat Kohli had a woeful run in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and could score only 341 runs at a dismal average of 22.73 in 16 matches.
Meanwhile, Babar Azam has broken numerous Virat Kohli records of late. The Pakistan skipper first went past the India star’s milestone of being the fastest captain to a thousand runs in T20Is. Subsequently, Babar Azam became the only cricketer in the world to hit three consecutive hundreds in ODIs twice.
Last month, the Lahore-born player leapfrogged Virat Kohli to occupy the No.1 spot in the T20I rankings for the longest reign at the top. While Virat Kohli sat at the perch for 1,013 days during the last decade, Babar Azam has surpassed that total with his continuing stay at the numero uno position in the ICC’s charts.
Recently, Babar Azam’s good friend Imam-ul-Haq shared his views on the Virat Kohli vs the Pakistan captain debate.
While Imam-ul-Haq acknowledged that Virat Kohli was a legendary cricketer, he claimed that Babar Azam would surpass the Indian’s tally of runs in the future.
“Virat Kohli is a legend and there’s no doubt about that. If someone has played 240 plus matches and someone 80, then you can’t compare them. If you compare their careers right now, then Babar is way ahead, but as my best friend and captain of Pakistan, I want him to break plenty of Kohli’s records,” Imam-ul-Haq said on SAMAA News.
“But right now, I can’t understand the comparisons. One has more than 10,000 runs. Yes, at the end of their careers, I want Babar to score 3 to 4 thousand runs more than Kohli in every format,” Imam-ul-Haq added.
Virat Kohli will be back in action for India on Sunday when Rohit Sharma and his men will face Jos Buttler-led England in the third and final ODI at Old Trafford in Manchester.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has rested Virat Kohli from the national team's upcoming tour to the West Indies where Rohit Sharma and company will play three ODI and five T20Is.
While senior speedster Jasprit Bumrah has also been given a break, Virat Kohli's absence from the squad raised eyebrows, considering T20I matches against the West Indies are important to build some sort of momentum ahead of the T20 World Cup in Australia later this year.
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