Virat Kohli played an exceptional knock to steer India to victory in the opening match of the T20 World Cup at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday. While receiving the Player of the Match award, the 33-year-old said that Sunday’s knock is the best-ever in T20s because of the “magnitude of the game and the situation”. In his own words, it surpassed his 82 against Australia in Mohali.
Kohli, who has been out of form for the most part of 2022, made a comeback in exceptional style, rekindling hopes of India winning the 2022 T20 World Cup. Indians reacted to his innings on Twitter and big names like Sachin Tendulkar, Shah Rukh Khan and Home Minister Amit Shah led the way in congratulating the team India.
Sachin Tendulkar, cricket legend, said that Kohli’s knock was his life’s best and it was “a treat” to watch him play against Pakistan at the MCG. It seemed from the tweet that the God of Cricket really enjoyed Kohli’s 19th over six from a no-ball that became a matter of much controversy later.
Next in line was Bollywood badshah Shah Rukh Khan for whom Kohli’s explosive innings meant the start of Diwali. Seeing team India win with the song from his movie Chak De India made the 56-year-old actor emotional.
India’s Home Minister and the father of BCCI vice president Jay Shah agreed with Shah Rukh Khan that team India’s win against Pakistan meant the beginning of Diwali celebrations in India. He also made a special mention of Virat Kohli’s crucial knock.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) posted a graphic of Kohli sitting on a throne on Twitter. The tweet said, “The King is Back”. Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), Kohli’s IPL team, retweeted the ICC tweet saying: “Excuse me, He never left.”
Former India pacer Irfan Pathan who was part of India’s T20 World Cup winning team in 2007 joined in with everyone else to crown the former India captain the king. His brother and former India all-rounder Yusuf Pathan also joined at hailing the knock as the best of Kohli in the limited overs format. He asked the Men in Blue to chase silverware.
The win over Pakistan, one of the title contenders in the T20 World Cup, will give Men in Blue a huge confidence boost. They will play the Netherlands in the next Group 2 fixture on Thursday, October 27.
