‘Continuing a long tradition’: Mohammad Kaif’s reaction to Virat Kohli-Babar Azam Twitter conversation

India’s batting maestro Virat Kohli has recently received a lot of support from fellow cricketers amid his struggling run of form across formats. One of the responses were from Pakistan skipper Babar Azam, who took to Twitter and wrote: “This too shall pass. Stay strong. #ViratKohli”.

To this, Kohli replied to Babar’s tweet, saying: “Thank you. Keep shining and rising. Wish you all the best.”

Kohli has endured a disappointing outing in England, scoring just 28 runs from three limited-overs games so far. Prior to that, he just aggregated 31 runs from the rescheduled fifth Test early in July.

Former India batter Mohammad Kaif tweeted on Sunday, saying that Virat and Babar were continuing the long India-Pakistan cricketers’ tradition of keeping sports away from politics, while calling the two ‘great ambassadors’.

“Babar and Virat are continuing a long India-Pakistan cricketers’ tradition of keeping sports away from politics. Rivals on field, well-wishers off it. Great player, great ambassadors. @babarazam258 @imVkohli,” tweeted Kaif.

Pakistan Super League club Quetta Gladiators tweeted: “We just love this GAME. @babarazam258 @imVkohli.”

“True sportsmen @imVkohli and @babarazam258 Count their runs but don’t miss their admiration for each other like good old days, Gavaskar and Miandad; Kapil Dev and Richard Hadlee; Tendulkar and Warne…. Cricket is more than just runs and wickets,” tweeted journalist Vijay Lokapally.

Irfan Pathan reacted to Babar’s tweet, saying: “You will be remembered for this”.

Kohli, who is currently playing in the ODI series decider against England, has received support from current skipper Rohit Sharma, Kohli’s childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma, and even overseas cricketers like Jos Buttler and Usman Khawaja. Kohli has not scored an international century since November 2019.