But on Sunday, even the Pakistan captain was in awe of Kohli, who registered India’s memorable win in the T20 World Cup at the MCG.
Kohli’s inspiring batting was the difference between the two sides.
After the loss, Babar said, “Our bowlers did a great job in the first 10 overs. Credit to Virat and Hardik, the way they finished the game.”
But when that discussion turned to Kohli, Babar was stunned in his praise.
“Virat Kohli showed his class today. It was a close game and people enjoyed it.”
Winning the pressure game after a lean patch of three years will boost Kohli’s morale, agreed Babar.
“Pakistan vs India are always a game of extra pressure and the sooner you can get away with it, the better. So he is a big player, he was under pressure and he got over it and then built his innings. The way they built the partnership was the turning point,” said the Pakistani captain.
“This innings must have given him a lot of confidence and when you win games like these, you feel good mentally,” he added.
Bringing Nawaz in the 20th over
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The question was inevitable as to why left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz was brought in in the 20th over and the fast bowlers’ quota of overs was already exhausted.
“When the partnership (Kohli-Pandya) was building, we needed to take wickets and I thought of bringing in my main bowler and creating pressure.
“But the plan was not working out the way I would have thought. He (Nawaz) will learn from it and the next time he faces a situation like this, he will realize what he needs to do.”
We need to get over the disappointment quickly
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Babar was very clear that he could not mourn the loss as the tournament had just begun.
“We will be confident. We will learn from this loss. Some good things happened and some mistakes happened. We will discuss and it is just the beginning of the tournament and we have a lot of games left.
“The sooner we recover from it the better. We have back-to-back matches and we need to focus on that.”
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