Afghanistan wicket-keeper bat Rahmanullah Gurbaz has revealed that Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni are his go-to-men for learning how to get better. Gurbaz has impressed with his skills at the top of the order for Afghanistan.

The right-hander scored a fine knock of 50 runs off just 32 balls in the third T20I against India at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru. Gurbaz scored a total of 87 runs in the three T20I matches against India at an average of 29.

The 22-year-old has scored 1271 runs in 49 T20I matches at an average of 25.94 and a strike rate of 137.11. The right-hander also played for Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2023, scoring 227 runs in 11 matches at an average of 20.64.

Gurbaz played against the likes of MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli in the IPL and said the experience of interacting with the duo has helped him a lot.

“I always talked to Virat and MS Dhoni about how to improve my cricket. I have a lot of things in my mind and I have to work on it. I was talking to Virat (bhai) about my cricket journey and how should I grow, and reach the next level,” Gurbaz told ANI in an interview.

Meanwhile, India recently whitewashed Afghanistan by 3-0 in the T20I series and Gurbaz said playing against India was a good experience for their team.

“It was a good learning for us. This kind of game can happen. We also enjoyed the game and learned a lot from it. Playing against players like Virat and Rohit Sharma gave us a lot of confidence and learning. I hope we get a lot of series against India in future,” Gurbaz said.

Afghanistan will next face Sri Lanka in the only Test match at the Sinhalese Sports Club, Colombo from 2nd February onwards.