Former Pakistan captain, Salman Butt, has reacted to outside opinions on India’s batting legend Virat Kohli, who has been going through the worst phase of his celebrated career for the past three years now.
The dashing right-hander hasn’t scored a century in any format of the game since 2019 and had a disappointing IPL 2022 with the RCB. But with people making different statements about Kohli’s struggle, Butt lavished praise on the run machine for being a supermodel.
The Pakistan cricketer said that Kohli has set an exemplary stature in the world and given that his half-centuries after a few poor innings tend to go unnoticed, as the fans have got into the habit of him hitting centuries in every match across the formats.
Salman Butt said on his official YouTube channel: “The ones who understand the game know that Kohli is an institution in himself. The way he has performed and carved himself into a role model as an athlete, as a batter, and as a captain, he has an exemplary stature.”
He continued, “Virat has set such high standards for himself that fifties in eight of his last 14 matches went unnoticed. People think that he isn’t in form because he got into the habit of scoring centuries. He will be back in form for the good of cricket.”
The former skipper further said that it’s important for Kohli, Joe Root, Babar Azam, and Kane Williamson to continue to perform brilliantly as they are role models for aspiring cricketers.
Butt signed off by saying, “The top-class players, (Joe) Root, Kohli, Babar (Azam), (Kane) Williamson need to stay in form as they are the supermodels. The aspiring cricketers look up to them.”
