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Afghanistan's spin wizard Rashid Khan is gearing up for the Asia Cup 2022 which is set to kick off from August 27 (Saturday). Meanwhile, right ahead of the marquee tournament, the Afghan walked down the memory lane and recalled an interesting incident about batting juggernaut Virat Kohli's unflinching commitment and greatness.
The spin ace has spent many years playing in the IPL and bowled to best of the Indian batters all this while. Rashid will be looking to bring all that experience handy in the upcoming Asia Cup when his team will get to face the Men in Blue.
Rashid said during IPL 2022, he was completely surprised by witnessing Kohli's preparations on the eve of a Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Gujarat Titans match. Rashid, who plays for the Gujarat Titans, said the RCB batter was practising in the nets for about two and half hours even after the rest of the players had completed their entire training session.
"During the IPL, we had a match the next day against RCB. In the nets, I was just counting the time Virat was out there. To be honest, he batted for two and half hours. Main aisa hairan hua (I was so shocked). Our nets were finished and still, he was there batting. The next day he scored around 70 against us. His mindset is very positive," Rashid told sports presenter Sawera Pasha ahead of the Asia Cup.
Riding on Kohli's splendid 73 off 54 the next day, RCB romped Gujarat Titans by eight wickets by chasing down the target of 169 in 18.4 overs.
However, the embattled Kohli is going through a lean patch with the willow but will look to go all guns blazing in the imminent Asia Cup and prove once again why he is considered as the greatest batter alive.
"Jab wo khelta hai toh aise shots khelta hai ki aap bologe ki bilkul out of form nahi hai. Main toh yahi bolunga that he is not out-of-form. (When he bats, he plays such wonderful shots that to me, he doesn't appear to be out-of-form at all). The expectations are much more. People want him to score a hundred every second game. If you look at his Test match innings, he has got through the tough time, batted well, then somehow he has gotten out for 50 or 60 or 70. If there was any other normal batter then everyone would have said that he is in form but with Virat the expectations are such that they only want centuries," Rashid said.
Kohli has returned to the Indian side for the Asia Cup starting August 27 after skipping the West Indies and Zimbabwe tours. He arrived in Dubai with the rest of the Indian squad on Tuesday evening and in his first net session on Wednesday, appeared to be in fine touch.
"Jitna meri usse baat hui hai. Uske mind mein kabhi aya nahi ki log kya kahenge ya unki expectations kya hai. (Whenever I have had a word with him he has made it clear that people's expectations don't really bother him) The way that he prepares, I think it is an example for all of us. We tend to get motivated and put in more effort after watching him practice. A certain time comes in your career when whatever you try, doesn't work. But we as fans, want him to score big runs and I'm sure the hundreds will also come," he added.
India's squad:
Rohit Sharma (C), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Deepak Hooda, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan.
Standby: Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, Deepak Chahar.
Afghanistan's squad:
Mohammad Nabi (C), Najibullah Zadran (VC), Afsar Zazai (WK), Azmatullah Omarzai, Farid Ahmad Malik, Fazal Haq Farooqi, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Hazratullah Zazai, Ibrahim Zadran, Karim Janat, Mujib ur Rahman, Najibullah Zadran, Naveen ul Haq, Noor Ahmad, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (WK), Rashid Khan and Samiullah Shinwari.
