Watch: Fan flaunts Virat Kohli’s jersey during Babar Azam’s match in Pakistan

A Pakistan fan was seen waving Virat Kohli’s jersey during Match 4 of the Champions One Day Cup between Stallions and Markhors.

There is no matching Virat Kohli’s global craze. If it wasn’t for his popularity, cricket wouldn’t have earned a vote for a return to the Olympics for the 2028 Los Angeles edition. Over the course of his career, where the 35-year-old dominated across formats to emerge as a modern-era legend and stands on the verge of breaking Sachin Tendulkar’s all-time records, Kohli has garnered from fans across the world, including Pakistan.

On Sunday, a video of a Pakistan fan waving Kohli’s Indian team jersey during a Champions One-Day Cup match in Faisalabad, the home ground of Pakistan captain Babar Azam, went viral on social media. It happened during the match between Stallions and Markhors and the act gained more popularity because the match featured Babar as well.

This is surely not the first instance of the craze of Kohli in Pakistan and among Pakistan fans. Back in 2022, a Pakistan spectator, during a Pakistan Super League (PSL) match, was seen holding a poster in which he asked the India star to score a century in the country. “I want to see your century in Pakistan #Peace,” the message on the poster read and it was placed on top of an image of Kohli batting. More recently, a Pakistan cricket fan went viral on social media after she flaunted a Kohli pendant during the T20 World Cup match against India in New York.

The former India captain is currently in Chennai as part of a training camp set up by the BCCI in preparation for the two-match Test series against Bangladesh. The series opener is on Thursday at the Chepauk, while the second Test will be played in Kanpur’s Green Park Stadium next week.

In the past as well, several fans have openly accepted their admiration for Kohli who has played several match-winning knocks against them. Kohli has scored 678 runs in ODIs against Pakistan at an average of 52.15 and a strike rate of 100.29 registering three centuries and two half centuries. In T20Is, he has scored 492 runs from 11 innings at a staggering average of 70.28 and a strike rate of 123.92 with five fifties.

The best innings of Kohli’s T20I career also came against Pakistan when he scored a phenomenal 82* (53) at the Melbourne Cricket Ground during the T20 World Cup 2022. His knock helped India chase down 160 after being 31/4 at one stage.

Pakistan fans have often compared their star batter Babar Azam with Kohli who’s broken a couple of records of Kohli in the shortest format. The former Pakistan captain became the fastest to score 1000 runs in T20Is in 26 innings bettering Kohli’s record of 27 innings.

He also spent a whopping 1070 days as the world number one ranked batter in T20Is surpassing Kohli’s reign of 1013 days. Meanwhile, Babar hasn’t been in the best of forms in international cricket as he hasn’t scored a half-century in Test cricket in the last 16 innings. However, he’s been scoring runs for Stallions in the ongoing Champions One Day cup having knocks of 76 (79) and 45 (45) so far.

He scored five consecutive boundaries against Markhors’ Shahnawaz Dahani albeit in a losing cause as Rizwan’s stallions won by 126 runs.

With Thanks Reference to:https://www.indiatoday.in/sports/cricket/story/fan-flaunts-virat-kohlis-jersey-during-babar-azams-match-in-pakistan-2601037-2024-09-17 and https://www.hindustantimes.com/cricket/virat-kohlis-india-jersey-spotted-at-babar-azams-home-ground-as-pakistan-fans-act-goes-viral-during-champions-cup-101726542339472.html