Babar Azam opens on his viral ‘This too shall pass’ message for Virat Kohli

Pakistan skipper Babar Azam has revealed the reason behind a strong message he sent to Virat Kohli, last year. The star batter had left the cricket world surprised with ‘This too shall pass’ tweet for a rival player. It is common that many former Pak players support the Indian players. However, not many had expected a player like Babar to post a tweet like this. 

Babar posted the tweet in July 2022, when Kohli hasn’t been in the best of his forms. Just a day before, he was dismissed for just 16 runs in an ODI against England at the Lord's Cricket Ground in which the hosts won the match by 100 runs. At that time, the former India captain also hadn’t scored a century since his 136-run knock against Bangladesh in 2019. From his last hundred, he had scored 806 ODI runs at an average of 36.68. He couldn’t even manage to score some decent runs in T20 cricket as well. 

Showing support to Kohli, Babar took to Twitter and wrote, “This too shall pass. Stay strong.” He also shared a picture of them together along with the post. Kohli had also acknowledged the support and replied: “Thank you. Keep shining and rising. Wish you all the best.”

Below is the Twitter post of Babar Azam:

Thank you. Keep shining and rising. Wish you all the best 👏

— Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) July 16, 2022

In an interview with ICC Digital Insider, Zainab Abbas, the Pakistan skipper revealed that he ultimately wanted his on-field rival to succeed. He also said that he posted that message keeping in mind that it would help someone to gain confidence to make a comeback. He added that every sportsperson must back each other during their hard times. 

“At that time I thought maybe if I tweet it might give someone help and confidence. See, as a player, you try to back every sportsman in a difficult time,” babar told ICC.

“It is in difficult times when you get to know what you are thinking about others. At that time, I thought I should have done that and maybe something positive will come out of it. Something which can be a plus point.,” he added.

Kohli returned to form soon as he scored a 122* in the Super Four clash against Afghanistan in September, at the ICC T20 World Cup 2022. He also smashed a stunning 82* against arch-rivals Pakistan in the T20 WC at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). His unbeaten knock helped India to make a memorable win over the Babar-led side.

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