Ahead of his team’s World Cup 2023 match against India, Bangladesh's star wicketkeeper-batter Mushfiqur Rahim has explained why he refrains from sledging legendary India batter Virat Kohli.

According to Rahim, Kohli gets pumped up whenever someone tries to needle him and he also advised the Bangladesh bowlers to avoid sledging the latter.

India and Bangladesh are due to square off at Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune on Thursday (October 19).

"Some batters in the world love sledging and get pumped up by that. So I never sledge him because he gets pumped up by that. I always tell my bowlers to get rid of him as early as possible,” said Rahim while speaking to the official broadcaster.

"Whenever I play against him, he always tries to sledge me every time I go in to bat because he is a really competitive guy and he doesn't want to lose any cricket match. I really love that rivalry with him and the challenge that comes with facing him and India,” he added.

Talking about Virat Kohli’s prowess in the ongoing World Cup, he has been in terrific touch form. While the right-hander played match-winning knocks of 85 and 55* against Australia and Afghanistan respectively, he fell for a low score of 16 in India’s last outing against Pakistan.

As for Team India, they have had a terrific start to their World Cup campaign, winning all three games rather comprehensively.

While India chased down Australia’s target of 200 with six wickets in hand and 52 balls remaining, they overhauled Afghanistan's target of 273 with eight wickets and 15 overs to spare.

The Men in Blue continued their World Cup winning streak against Pakistan as they bundled out the arch-rivals for a below-par 191 and completed the chase in 30.3 overs with seven wickets left.

(With IANS Inputs)