Meerut-born right-handed batsman Sameer Rizvi paid his respects to Indian batting stalwart Virat Kohli during handshakes after CSK defeated RCB by 6 wickets in the first match of IPL 2024. Rizvi was seen taking off Chennai Super Kings cap before shaking Kohli’s hand. That gesture of the youngster who played his first IPL match yesterday is now going viral all over social media and fans are loving what Rizvi did.
Although Sameer Rizvi could not get a chance to bat as the match was already over, he got first-hand experience of what it is like to play in the richest T20 league. He will also be a player of the future and the future started yesterday when Ruturaj Gaikwad took over the responsibility of captaincy and led CSK to a decent win over RCB.
Watch the video of Sameer Rizvi paying tribute to Virat Kohli
Virat Kohli hugged MS Dhoni after the match.🫂🥹💛❤️ pic.twitter.com/L7wxH9uOF4
– Virat Kohli Fan Club (@Trend_VKohli) March 23, 2024
After shaking hands with Virat Kohli, Sameer Rizvi took to his official Instagram account and posted a photo with the legend himself inside the dressing room. He captioned that post with just 2 words “Forever Legend.”
Virat Kohli fails to get off the wheel on his competitive comeback
Meanwhile, Virat Kohli, who was returning to competitive cricket after a gap of exactly 3 months due to the birth of his second child with wife Anushka Sharma, failed to go off the mark on his comeback. At first, he didn’t have to do much as his starting partner, Faf du Plessis, was doing most of the damage. The former South African captain thrashed Deepak Chahar and Tushar Deshpande.
Virat Kohli hadn’t even played 5 balls until the fifth over, but when he came into action, he looked quite sloppy. He only scored six in the match and accumulated only 21 runs off 20 balls. If he really wants to seal his place in the Indian team for the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup in June in the US and West Indies, Kohli will need to improve his game to some extent.
Anyway, there were reports that he missed the flight to the Caribbean because the conditions there might not be suitable for his game and if he continues like this, things will become even more complicated. But given the kind of player he has been over the years and the way he has served India, especially during the ICC tournaments.
Who can forget the way he took the game to India when the Men in Blue faced Pakistan in the group stage of the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground? It took 16 runs off the last ball and Kohli, against all odds, stayed at the crease till the last moment and guided India to a victory that will be remembered forever.
Also, if Virat Kohli plays a 500+ run season like he did last year, then there will be no doubt about his participation in the WC T20. Impact’s leading run-scorer in the toughest T20 league is so much so that only Rahul Dravid is the batsman after him to score the most runs in IPL as an Indian – 893 runs.