KARACHI: Pakistan’s star goalkeeper Mohammad Rizwan praised Indian batsman Virat Kohli for his caring and humble attitude off the pitch when he spoke about meeting Kohli after winning the T20 World Cup match against India last year.
“It was the first time I met Kohli.
The kind of things I had heard about him, other players also told me ‘Virat is aggressive and everything’. But the way he met me before and after the match was amazing,” Rizwan said in an interview on the Youtube channel.
Cricket Baaz with Waheed Khan
“We all belong to the cricket family. If I call it ‘our Virat Kohli’, it is correct in the sense”, he added.
Last year, photos and videos of Rizwan went viral as he happily hugged the Indian captain and shared words with him after Pakistan defeated India by 10 wickets for the first time in a world cup match.
Rizwan to date had not revealed the talk he had with Kohli, however, admiring the attitude of the Indian players, he revealed that both teams had very different attitudes on and off the pitch.
“Obviously, when we enter the earth, nobody is a star.
There we have no brotherhood or anything like that. But off the pitch, when we met Kohli, and some of our players also met MS Dhoni, we were met with a lot of love and affection,” said Rizwan.
The goalkeeper also weighed in on the quality time he spent with Indian test player Cheteshwar Pujara, both of whom were representing Sussex in the county season.
“Even in county cricket, where Pujara is with me, believe me, we live with a lot of love. In fact, it’s me who keeps bothering him, calling him. He keeps laughing,” she shared.
Expressing his views on the bilateral test matches between India and Pakistan, Rizwan stated that the players of both teams wanted to play each other but the complications at the top were not under their control.
“..The [Pujara] from what I understood he also wanted to play against Pakistan. But there must be difficulties at the top that are beyond our knowledge, otherwise, [players] they want the Test, ODI and T20 series against them [India]Rizwan concluded.
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