It has to be one of India’s best knocks: Rohit Sharma on Virat Kohli’s 82* against Pakistan
Rohit Sharma the captain turned audience of Virat Masterclass against Pakistan has come out with all praise for the batting maestro.
For a knock that won India the opening fixture against Pakistan in the T20 World Cup, Rohit Sharma has nothing but praises.
Talking to the press in the post-match conference he gave his piece of mind. And mind you it was anything but doting on his fellow teammates’ lifesaving knock.
Rohit Sharma called this knock by Virat Kohli the best of his life. Further, he also clarified that this has to go down as the best knock by any Indian in the history of the T20I format.
From a sinking situation of 41-4 after ten overs, Kohli literally carried Indian batting over the line. And helped them register an empathic victory by chasing down the total of 160.
Watch: Rohit Sharma press conference praising Virat Kohli’s knock
“Yeah, I think it has to go — definitely his best for sure, but I think from the situation we were in, and to come out with a victory, I think it has to be one of India’s best knocks, not just his best knock,” Rohit told media persons.
Rohit Sharma the went on to explain why this was the best knock in history.
“Because until the 13th over (needing close to 100 runs), we were so behind in the game, and the required rate was just climbing up and up. But to come out and chase that score was an extremely brilliant effort from Virat, ” he added.
To stabilize the inning, Kohli added 113 runs with Hardik Pandya. He took 50 off 43 deliveries but after that wreaked havoc to end up with a score of 82* off 53.
“I thought both of them, because these guys have played under pressure so many games for us, so they knew exactly how to handle that kind of situation, and they did pretty well in that situation,” the skipper effusive in the praise of Kohli-Pandya partnership
With 48 needed off the final three, Kohli took on the likes of Shaheen Shah Afridi for 17 runs in the 18th over. Then levelled the playing field by scoring 15 off Harris Rauff’s 19th over, and eventually allowed the final 16 to be chased off Nawaz’s final over.
The winning runs might have come off Ashwin’s bat, but everyone knows who finished the inning in the real sense.
Rohit Sharma has always been a huge supporter of Virat Kohli. Even in the past he had fended the out-of-form Kohli in front of Press. Now his trust in the abilities of Kohli is paying dividends.
