Cricket News

‘Beta jab tu Under-19 khel raha tha na…’- Former Pakistan cricketer reveals an altercation with Virat Kohli in 2015 World Cup

Virat Kohli and Pakistan is a love affair in itself as he has been scoring heavily against the Men in Green. He has a great record against them in T20Is and also holds his highest ODI score of 183 against them when he helped India beat Pakistan in a high-scoring Asia Cup game in Bangladesh. The occasion of an India-Pakistan match pumps him up and drives him to do well.

He did have a rivalry with the Pakistan fast bowlers such as Mohammad Amir and Shaheen Shah Afridi and also Sohail Khan. The two had a feisty encounter against each other in the 2015 World Cup. Sohail bowled a good spell and picked up 5-55 in his 10 overs. He also picked up the wicket of Kohli and an ugly altercation happened between the two.

It happened when Sohail came out to bat in the second innings. “Virat came. He said to me ‘Aap cricket mein abhi aaye hain. And itni baatein karte ho (You’ve just arrived and you speak so much),” Sohail said on the Nadir Ali Podcast. He played Test cricket for Pakistan in 2006 and 2007 but his career could not take off because of knee problems that he encountered.

“I said ‘Beta jab tu Under-19 khel raha tha na, tera baap Test cricketer tha‘ (Son, when you were playing Under-19 for India, your father [referring to himself] was a Test player). That’s how I said it. Then if you see carefully, Misbah intervened and he got angry at me. He asked me to keep quiet,” India won that 2015 World Cup game in Adelaide by 76 runs.

However, now the tensions between the two have diffused and Sohail has nothing but respect for Kohli. He has also seen the coming of age of Kohli, who is in a different stage of his career right now. “I respect him today because he is a great batter, amazing,” Sohail added. Kohli stepped down as captain of India after the 2021 20-20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates.