IND vs PAK: Sunil Gavaskar threatens Babar Azam about Virat Kohli

Former India batter Sunil Gavaskar directed a warning threat to Pakistani skipper Babar Azam about Virat Kohli's form ahead of the Indo-Pak clash.

The Indian team, led by Rohit Sharma, played their first ICC T20 World Cup 2024 Group stage game against Ireland yesterday. Rohit had won the toss and elected to bowl first in the tough conditions at the Nassau County Stadium in New York. We haven't seen many high-scoring matches in the World Cup as of now and the story remained the same yesterday as well.

India were given less than 100 runs to chase by Paul Stirling's Ireland. The target was never going to pose a problem for the potent and long Indian batting tail which chased it down within the 13th over. There were many positives to pick from the match and the only negative that came out of the game was Virat Kohli's 13-minute presence in the crease.

It was the first time in many years that Virat Kohli came as an opening batter with skipper Rohit Sharma. It was also the first time at a World Cup stage that Kohli was introduced as an opener but the 36-year-old was unable to replicate his IPL 2024 form.

The former India captain got out for just a run off 5 balls. He now has a chance to fight back against India's fiercest rival Pakistan on June 9.

Sunil Gavaskar backs to Virat Kohli to return with runs in the next match against Pakistan

Sunil Gavaskar, who recently had an indirect war of words with Virat Kohli in IPL 2024, came out in the latter's defense after yesterday's innings. Gavaskar started off by naming Kohli as one of the modern-day greats with Steve Smith, Babar Azam, and Joe Root.

Sunny G then spoke about the temperaments of great players who tend to stage a strong comeback after failing to score runs in one match. With that being said, Gavaskar backed Kohli to score double the runs in the next ICC T20 World Cup 2024 group match against Babar Azam's Pakistan.

As we all know, Virat Kohli has always been a big match player and he is someone who embraces the pressure. Thus, Sunil Gavaskar feels the Delhi-born cricketer will be hungry to amass more runs than he wanted to score against Ireland yesterday.

"The way I look at it is…great players like Steve Smith, Virat Kohli, Babar Azam and Joe Root. They fail in one match; they wanna make up for it in the next match. They want to score double the runs. So whatever runs he might not have gotten (against Ireland), you know, he wants to score double the runs. And who better to score double the runs than against Pakistan." - Sunil Gavaskar told Star Sports.

Will Virat Kohli repeat the MCG antics from 2022?

This is the question that is lingering around the minds of all Virat Kohli and Indian cricket fans will Virat Kohli play another iconic knock? The last time he faced Pakistan in a T20 game, Kohli had scored 82 runs off 53 balls in a thrilling encounter at the Melbourne Cricket Ground during the 2022 T20 WC edition.