Pakistan leg-spinner Shadab Khan has lauded Virat Kohli for his unbeaten 82, which he scored in the T20 World Cup 2022 against them in the Super 12 stage at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground. Kohli scored 82 off just 53 balls as he batted at the top of his game to take India to a historic four-wicket win.

India had their backs against the wall as they required 28 off the last eight balls however Kohli turned the tables with two sixes against in-form Haris Rauf. India then was able to score 16 runs in the last over against Mohammad Nawaz.

Shadab Khan, who had economical figures of 4-0-21-0 in that match, feels no other batter could have what Kohli did to their bowling on that memorable day for Indian cricket.

“Virat Kohli is a world-class player, definitely. You have to plan a lot to face him. Anyway, in international cricket, there are a lot of mind games, because you definitely have the skill to reach that level. But how you read each other’s minds, the bowler and the batsman, how they read each other’s minds and it also depends on what the situation is,” Shadab was quoted as saying during an exclusive conversation with Star Sports.

“The kind of batsman that Virat Kohli is, the way he has performed against us, even in the last match at the World Cup, I don’t think that if any other batsman in the world was in that situation, could have done that to our bowling line-up. And the beauty of it is that he can do this at any stage and at any time,” he added.

Kohli has played 13 ODIs against Pakistan in which he has scored 536 runs at an average of 48.72, including a mammoth score of 183 runs, which came in the Asia Cup.

Meanwhile, Pakistan registered a massive win of 238 runs against Nepal in their opening match of the Asia Cup. India will begin their Asia Cup campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium, Pallekele on September 2.