File photo of Indian cricket team star Virat Kohli© BCCI
The Asia Cup 2023 match between India and Pakistan is just round the corner and a lot of eyes will be on Virat Kohli who has been a star performer in this contest over the years. With the two teams not playing bilateral series for nearly a decade, the only chance that fans have of seeing these two rivals face each other is at continental or International Cricket Council (ICC) events. Pakistan cricket team spinner Shadab Khan was all praise for Kohli ahead of the much-anticipated clash and said that bowler need to have proper plans while facing a batter of his caliber.
In a recent interaction, he also recalled Kohli’s match-winning knock in the 2022 T20 World Cup and said that no other batter could have played that way against the Pakistan bowling attack.
“He (Kohli) is a world-class player, definitely. You have to plan a lot to face him,” Shadab told Star Sports on the sidelines of the tournament.
Kohli slammed an unbeaten 53-ball 82-run knock against Pakistan in a group match of the ICC T20 World Cup at Melbourne last year to guide India to a convincing four-wicket win over their arch-rivals.
Recalling that knock, Shadab said, “The kind of batsman that Virat Kohli is, the way he has performed against us, even in the last match at the (2022 T20) World Cup, I don’t think that if any other batsman in the world was in that situation, could have done that to our bowling line-up.”
“And, the beauty of it is that he can do this at any stage and at any time.”
(With PTI inputs)
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