2024-07-13 08:22:24
24 minutes ago
Former Pakistan captain and all-rounder Shahid Afridi has expressed that he wants Indian star player Virat Kohli to play in Pakistan.
He also said in an interview with News24 Sports Channel that the two countries should keep politics aside and play together, which will create good relations.
Importantly, the Indian Cricket Board has asked the ICC to host the Indian cricket team’s matches in Dubai or Sri Lanka for the Champions Trophy series to be held in Pakistan in 2025, a BCCI source told news agency ANI.
However, no official information in this regard has been released from the BCCI side so far.
It is worth noting that when there was a situation where Pakistan had to go and play in the previous moments, BCCI refused to play and insisted on ICC to hold the tournament abroad.
BCCI, which refused, expressed its displeasure to other boards
Last year (2023) when Pakistan hosted the Asia Cup series, the Indian Cricket Board refused to play there citing security reasons.
At that time the Sri Lankan Cricket Board supported Indian cricket and organized matches for the Indian team. Former Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Najam Sethi posted on his X page that he was being discriminated against because BCCI president Jay Shah was also the president of the Asian Cricket Council.
Bangladesh Cricket Board President Jalal Yunus said that the Bangladesh team is also involved in the issue between India and Pakistan. Because of this, his players had to travel between Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
“Virat Kohli will forget India”
subtitle, Shahid Afridi has said that many fans are celebrating Virat Kohli in Pakistan.
Former Pakistan cricket team captain Shahid Afridi has openly invited India to play the 2025 Champions Trophy on Pakistani soil.
“Virat Kohli has a lot of fans in Pakistan. The love they get from them is enough to make Virat Kohli forget the love he gets from the Indian fans.
Kohli has such a huge fan base here. Virat is also my favorite player, he should not have announced his retirement from T20s,” Afridi told News24 Sports channel.
Also, Shahid Afridi, talking about the welcome and pleasant treatment they received when the Pakistan team toured India, said, “Both countries should leave politics aside and play cricket together. It will create this is a fun band.”
The best players of this generation
And Shahid Afridi answered the question raised by the reporter about the best players of this generation, and he has to mention Virat Kohli in batting. He is the best player. Similarly, Babur, who has consistently performed well, is getting better with the bat.”
Referring to Rashid Khan and Kuldeep Yadav in the spin, Afridi said that Kuldeep has improved a lot now than before. Similarly, he mentioned that players like Bumrah, Naseem Shah and Shaheen are performing well in fast bowling.
India-Pakistan: A long standing issue
Due to ongoing issues between the two countries, the bilateral cricket series between India and Pakistan has not been held for a long time.
Pakistan last toured India in 2012-13 and participated in a bilateral cricket series that included two T20 internationals and three ODIs.
In the T20 series of this tour, Pakistan team won the first match by 5 wickets and India won the second match by 11 runs, the series ended in a draw.
However, Pakistan won the One Day International series 2-1. Pakistan won the first match by 6 wickets, the second match by 85 runs and India won the third match by 10 runs.
When was the last time an Indian team toured Pakistan?
In terms of bilateral cricket series, the last time India played Pakistan was in the last series held in 2005-06.
In this tour, India played 5 ODIs and 3 Tests against Pakistan.
Although Pakistan won the Test series 1-0, India showed great potential in the ODI series and won the series 4-1.
The best players in India’s last tour of Pakistan
subtitle, Virender Sehwag and Shoaib Akhtar during the Test match between India and Pakistan.
Top Test Series Scorers:
- Younis Khan – 553 runs
- Mohammad Yousuf – 461 runs
- Shahid Afridi – 330 runs
Most wicket takers in a Test series:
- Zakir Khan – 10
- Abdul Razak – 9
- RB Singh – 9
Highest scorers in ODI series:
- Yuvraj Singh – 344 runs
- Shoaib Malik – 314 runs
- Sachin Tendulkar – 237 runs
Highest wicket takers in ODI series:
- Irfan Pathan – 9
- RB Singh – 8
- Ajith Agarkar – 6
Asian Cup 2008
Apart from the bilateral cricket series, the 2008 Asia Cup was the last match played by an Indian team on Pakistani soil.
India played 2 matches against Pakistan in this series. The cricket teams of Sri Lanka and India clashed in the final of this series.
Sri Lanka won the Asia Cup by beating India by 100 runs in the match held in Karachi.
Cricket matches between two countries were stopped due to bomb attacks
After the terrorist attacks in Mumbai in 2008, the Indian cricket team announced that they will not play any cricket match in Pakistan.
After this Indian cricket team is only playing in ICC series against Pakistan.
Also, due to the 2009 shooting attack in Lahore on a vehicle carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team, the tour of the international teams to Pakistan was suspended.
As a result no cricket team toured Pakistan for almost 10 years. Pakistan also missed out on the opportunity to co-host the ODI World Cup cricket series in 2011.
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