Crowd favorite Virat Kohli took the field for the first time in 14 months for the Indian team in the T20I format. The batsman was part of the XI of the recently concluded second T20I against Afghanistan at the Holkar Stadium in Indore.
Virat Kohli, who missed the first match in Punjab due to personal reasons, returned for the team and all the Indore stadium saw were chants of “Kohli Kohli”. All the people were excited to see him play and he was electric on the field.
The love for Virat Kohli was so much in the stadium that a fan of his breached security to meet him. The spectator enters the ground from the gate of the Narendra Hirwani Stadium by climbing the fence.
As soon as he entered the ground, he immediately ran to hug Virat Kohli, who also hugged the fan. The spectator was immediately detained by police and removed from the ground.
Here is the video:
🔥❤️ pic.twitter.com/xzG3DLxXal
– ¹³³ (@Vamshidhar_18) January 14, 2024
According to the police, the youth who breached the security was a die-hard fan of Virat Kohli. Police then detained the cricket lover and took him to Tukoganj police station. What caught the attention of many was that when the police took him away, the batsman told the officers not to attack him harshly.
Virat Kohli had a decent outing in his comeback match as he played a brutal innings and made sure to help his team win. He came out offensive-minded from the start and took the players to the cleaners.
Virat Kohli finished with 29 runs off 16 balls and it was a powerful innings from him. He just looked to attack and batted with a strike rate of over 181 and also smashed 5 boundaries in his innings. His knock came at a crucial time when India lost captain Rohit Sharma for a duck in the first over.
IND vs AFG: This is similar to Cristiano Ronaldo’s return to Man United – Saba Karim on Virat Kohli’s return to T20Is
Former Indian cricketer Saba Karim, who was part of the commentary panel for the India vs Afghanistan series, reacted to Virat Kohli’s return to the T20I format after 14 long months. He correlated this with Cristiano Ronaldo’s return to Manchester United. Speaking on Jio Cinema, he stated:
“This is similar to Cristiano Ronaldo’s return to Man United. The prodigal son returns, right? That’s kind of what Virat has been doing for 14 months. That’s a long time.”
Coming into the second T20I match between India and Afghanistan, after Virat Kohli got out, Shivam Dube (63*) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (68) entertained the crowd with brutal power hits. They added 92 runs for the partnership in no time and made the players look clueless. They sealed the game for the team with 26 balls to spare as they chased down the target in 15.4 overs. India took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series. They will next be seen in action when the final match is played on January 17 in Bengaluru.
