IND VS AUS: Never Said It Was Impossible- Former Pakistani Pacer Reacts After He Once Predicted Virat Kohli Can’t Make Comeback
Mar 1, 2023 at 10:02 PM
IND VS AUS: Indian team is eyeing the 3-0 lead against Australia in the Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2023. Men in Blue needs to win at least three matches in four-match series to qualify for the World Test Championship (WTC) Final. In the last match, Virat Kohli scripted history by becoming the fastest player to complete 25,000 international runs.
Mohammad Asif had predicted in 2021 that Kohli wouldn’t able to make a comeback but after his recent performance, he was reminded of his comment, Asif reacts by saying he never said it was impossible.
Asif reacted by saying that he felt it would be difficult for India’s run machine-
“I said that it would be difficult, but not impossible. For a bottom-hand player, at the age of 31 or 32, it is difficult to make a strong comeback,”
“Upper-hand players are a little more fluent, even if they have a bad patch, they can recover. Players like Sachin (Tendulkar), Babar (Azam) find it more easy to make a comeback due to this reason. Kohli is my favourite player and I really enjoy his batting,” said the right-arm pacer.
Team India ace batter endured a rough patch for the majority of 2022 after controversies surrounding his departure from the captaincy role, he left the limited-overs leadership role after T20 World Cup 2021 and in January 2022 for Test cricket. During that period, the 34-year-old hadn’t scored an international century for two years and endured a series of low scores, as well as in the IPL.
Virat Kohli's 82* vs Pakistan in T20 World Cup – Wisden's Best men's T20I innings of 2022, The King at Top. pic.twitter.com/4mlixj5G77
— CricketMAN2 (@ImTanujSingh) December 28, 2022
“Kohli is a bottom-hand player. He is doing well because of his fitness and it is supporting him. The moment he will face a decline, I don’t think Kohli can make a comeback,” said Asif in 2021.
However, the former Indian skipper made a remarkable comeback to run-scoring as he ended a long wait for an international century during the Asia Cup 2022 match against Afghanistan. Since then, he has scored three more centuries – all coming in ODIs, Kohli’s performance in T20 WC 2022 was incredible, especially against Pakistan, he scored an unbeaten 82 while chasing 160 runs to take his side to the victory.
