Former England captain Kevin Pietersen shares a great bond with star India batter Virat Kohli. The two even shared the dressing room for two seasons at the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in IPL 2009 and 2010. Throughout Kohli’s career, Pietersen has been one of his biggest admirers, and the latter always had the former’s back. During the recent-concluded ODI series between India and England, Kohli and Pietersen’s camaraderie was clearly evident as the two were often seen having conversations before and after the matches.
Pietersen, after the 3rd ODI in Ahmedabad, had also revealed that he and Kohli never discuss about cricket. With Kohli set to feature for the team in the Champions Trophy, Pietersen has backed his former RCB teammate to silence his critics, just like he has done in the past.
While speaking on Star Sports, Pietersen said: “He is one of the greats of the game. There have been too many people who have written him off on too many occasions. You can’t write these guys off because of the aura they have when they walk out to bat. The question mark comes down to Virat Kohli.”
“The question mark doesn’t come down to me, you, the selectors, the coaches, and the other players. Virat Kohli can only answer the question, in terms of how long he wants to continue, and how much fight he has to get better and to create those high standards that everybody expects from him,” he added.
Kohli recently gave a signed Indian cricket team jersey to Pietersen’s son Dylan.
Pietersen took to Instagram of his son wearing a shirt from Virat, which had his autograph with “To Dylan, with best wishes” written on it.
“Got home and gave @dylanpietersenphotography a gift from @virat.kohli and it goes straight on! Fits like a glove. Thanks buddy!,” said Pietersen’s post caption.
Virat Kohli managed scores of 5 and 52 in the two ODIs he had played against England. He had missed the opening game in Nagpur due to a sore knee.
India’s squad for ICC Champions Trophy, 2025: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill (Vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (WK), Rishabh Pant (WK), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Mohd. Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Varun Chakaravarthy.
Non-travelling substitutes: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Mohammed Siraj and Shivam Dube. The three players will travel to Dubai as and when required.
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