After the batter lost form and was benched for the upcoming West Indies series, the Pakistani captain Babar Azam spoke out in favor of the former Indian captain Virat Kohli to stay strong on Thursday night.

Due to a groin injury, Kohli missed the first ODI against England and scored just 16 runs in the second game, which India lost by a score of 100 runs at Lord’s.

After scoring 1 and 11 in the T20I series and failing in the rescheduled fifth Test, the right-hander has now gone 77 consecutive international innings without reaching three figures.

RELATED STORIES

Jasprit Bumrah and Yuzvendra Chahal are both resting for the same tour, so his name is also absent from India’s T20I squad to play the West Indies.

Fans and former greats have questioned Kohli’s place in the team because of the impending T20 World Cup and the need for World Test Championship points to stay in the running for next year’s final, but his Pakistani counterpart has expressed his support on social media.

Few players have the same understanding of the challenges of maintaining world-class form as Pakistan’s captain, who is currently experiencing a golden period.

Babar is ranked first in the MRF Tyres ICC batting rankings for both ODI and T20I matches, as well as fourth in Test cricket, after scoring international centuries in recent series against Australia and the West Indies as well as a T20I half-century against Australia in Lahore last month.

Prior to the England ODIs, captain Rohit Sharma stood up for his teammate, giving Kohli additional support earlier in the week.

“When someone is scoring consistently for so long, we can’t overlook his contribution if he is not scoring in one or two series or in one or two years.”

“We know the importance of Virat Kohli. The experts have got all the right to talk about it but for us these things don’t matter,” he added.