Virat Kohli finally reveals his first-ever chat with Pakistan captain Babar Azam during the ICC ODI World Cup 2019. Both Kohli and Babar have established themselves as the best all-format batters for their respective nations and maintain a healthy rivalry on the cricket pitch.
Babar Azam has consistently proved his hunger for the runs and is the only batter in the world in ICC batters rankings across all three formats. He has already scorched up 30 international hundreds since his debut in 2015 but is yet to score a century against India.
On the other hand, Kohli dominates major batting records across formats and has been in sensational form this year. He is not part of India's ongoing T20I series against West Indies but will return to the pitch when India participate in the upcoming Asia Cup 2023 starting on August 30.
Kohli has always enjoyed batting against Pakistan with 1024 runs in just 23 innings at an average of 60.23 with the help of two hundreds and seven fifties. Kohli first played against Babar during ICC ODI World Cup 2019 with the whole media's attention on the duo's first-ever handshake.
Babar has always been vocal while speaking about Kohli and has praised the Indian legend on numerous occasions. Now Kohli also reveals his thoughts about Pakistani batter and said that it was Imad Wasim who introduced Babar to him for the first time in Manchester.
"The first interaction I had with him [Babar] was during the 2019 [ODI] World Cup after the game in Manchester," Kohli told Star Sports in an interview. "I've known Imad [Wasim] since the Under-19 World Cup, and he said Babar wanted to have a chat."
Kohli also added that Babar showed a lot of respect when both the batters first met and said that he always enjoy watching Babar's batting.
"We sat down and spoke about the game. I saw a lot of regard and respect from him from day one, and that hasn't changed. Regardless of the fact he's probably the top batsman in the world across formats, and rightly so. Performs so consistently and I've always enjoyed watching him play," Kohli added.
