Prior to their eagerly anticipated matchup in the Asia Cup on Sunday, star Indian batter Virat Kohli discussed his relationship with Pakistani captain Babar Azam. Babar has always treated him with \u201crespect and regard,\u201d according to Kohli, who claimed he first met him during the 2019 World Cup, and that hasn\u2019t changed despite Babar\u2019s rise in prominence. Babar is currently \u201cthe top batsman in the world across formats,\u201d according to Kohli, who also praised him as the type of player that cricket needs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first interaction I had with him was the 2019 World Cup after the game in Manchester. Him and Imad (Wasim). Imad I have known since Under-19 cricket, we have played against each other and Imad said Babar wanted to have a chat,\u201d Kohli said in a chat with Star Sports.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe sat down and spoke about the game. I saw a lot of regard and respect from him and that hasn\u2019t changed regardless of the fact that he is probably the top batsman in the world right now across formats, performing so consistently,\u201d the former India skipper said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd rightly so, he has amazing talent and I have always enjoyed watching him play. So that hasn\u2019t changed. He is performing now and he is coming into his own, but I don\u2019t see his attitude or his approach change towards me, which is a very good sign of someone who is very grounded in his foundations of his upbringing,\u201d Kohli continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis cricketing foundations as well are very solid. So these kinds of players, these kind of characters go a long way and inspire a lot of people. And I see that happening with him as well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Prior to their eagerly anticipated matchup in the Asia Cup on Sunday, star Indian batter Virat Kohli discussed his relationship\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":250,"featured_media":27254,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1585,298],"class_list":["post-4235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cricket","tag-asia-cup","tag-babar-azam"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}