Mohammad Rizwan lauds Virat Kohli, says his fitness and work ethic are praiseworthy

Pakistan captain Mohammad Rizwan was full of praise for Virat Kohli after India registered a six wicket win in the Champions Trophy game at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai on Sunday. Rizwan hailed Kohli’s fitness and work ethic after he scored a match-winning century to deliver the goods for the team in the run-chase of 242.

Kohli wasn’t in the best of forms while coming into the game but he saved his best for the high-stakes game against the arch-rivals. The talisman scored only seven boundaries (28 runs) in his unbeaten knock of 100 runs and thus scored the rest of 72 runs by rotating the strike. 

Kohli added 69 runs with Shubman Gill whereas he added 114 runs with Shreyas Iyer, who scored 56 runs. The veteran batter also became the fastest to reach the milestone of 14000 ODI runs in 287 innings.

Speaking to the post-match press conference, Rizwan said, “I am amazed at the hard work he puts in. The whole world was saying he was out of form but coming into such a big game, he scored runs effortlessly. His fitness and work ethic is indeed praiseworthy. We tried our best to get him out but we could not.”

Rizwan admitted that their campaign in the Champions Trophy is all but over after losing the opening two games against New Zealand and India.

Rizwan said, “We can say that our campaign is as good as over. We have to depend on results of other matches. There is hope as there is one more game left. As a captain, I don’t like this scenario (depending on other teams). We should have fate in our hands.”

The Men in Green will next take on Bangladesh at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, Rawalpindi on Thursday.