'I pray for Virat Kohli’s comeback' - Mohammad Rizwan

Virat Kohli has been a shadow of his prime best. Struggling to score a century across formats since November 2019 and now even having a poor Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), the former India captain is going through his all-time low. 


Regarded as a modern-day great, Kohli has found words of support from Pakistan wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan, who has become one of Pakistan’s most reliable batters.


Speaking to Cricwick, Rizwan explained that it is only a matter of time before Kohli finds his form and starts scoring. 


The Pakistan keeper stated, “But I will say that he is a champion player, but at this stage, we can pray for him because he is a hardworking cricketer.”

The former India captain recorded his third golden duck of the ongoing season, where IPL’s most successful batter has scored a mere 216 runs in 12 games. 


Rizwan explained that this rough patch falls on every player, and the Chasemaster is no different. 


He further said, “And tough times do come and things do get easier too, Every player has scored centuries and got out on pairs, and this goes on. I can pray for him [Kohli], and I am hopeful that through hard work, he will control all things.”


Rizwan, who is currently playing the County Championship for Sussex, is going through a dream phase. Recently, the 29-year-old was also adjourned with the ICC Men’s T20I player of the year award after breaking the 1000 T20I runs barrier in a single calendar year.


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'It's hard not to take that to heart': Peter Handscomb on criticism in younger days

Australian wicket-keeper batsman Peter Handscomb made his Test debut against South Africa in November 2016 and made an immediate impact by hitting a half-century. In his first four Tests, he hit two centuries and had an average of 99.75. However, since then, he has featured in only 16 Tests and appeared last for the Baggy Greens in 2019. However, in his recent exploits for Victoria, he amassed 697 runs in the 2021/22 edition of Sheffield Shield, earning him a place in the Australia 'A' side which tours Sri Lanka next month. In a recent interaction, the 31-year-old revealed that he faced flak on various social media platforms for his batting style during his younger days. "I found those two platforms probably the worst in terms of people having direct access to you, to just randomly sledge you and take you down," Handscomb told cricket.com.au. The Aussie cricketer thinks it's pretty hard not to take that to heart when someone is calling you 'sh*t', questioning his selection into the Australian team. "When someone's taking the time out to directly message you, calling you shit or 'How dare you be in the Australian side' – that kind of stuff – it's hard not to take that to heart, especially (given) I was quite young at the time," he added. However, Handscomb reckoned that he got over the criticism during the 2017/18 edition of the Ashes. The middle-order batter further added that he would be better equipped to handle such things if he managed to play for the Australian team again. "I got off them during the Ashes (in 2017-18) and that was definitely one of the biggest things that helped," the Victorian suggested. "If that does happen again, and I am lucky enough to play for Australia again then, yeah, I think I'm better equipped to deal with everything that comes with it," he concluded. At present, Handscomb is leading the Middlesex side in County Championship Division II. In the latest outing, he scored 79 to help the team chase down the score of 370. After the culmination of the 1st half of this County season, he will depart for Sri Lanka to play a couple of one-day games and as many first-class matches for Australia 'A'.