Ahmed Shehzad Opens Up On Comparisons With Virat Kohli

Ahmed Shehzad is one of the many cricketers who was compared with the current Indian superstar Virat Kohli during his initial days. In fact, Shahzad also had a better start to his career than Virat Kohli. After his first 13 Tests, Ahmed Shehzad had 982 runs against his name at an average of 40.91 which also included three centuries.

Virat Kohli, on the other hand, had a middling start to his Test career. Having made his Test debut against the West Indies in 2011, Kohli struggled against genuine pace and bounce in the Caribbean and then in the first two Tests in Australia before he finally came into his own by racking up a 75 in Perth and a hundred at the Adelaide Oval. In the first 13 Tests, Kohli had 788 runs against his name at an average of 35.82 with the help of two centuries.

Shehzad also had better a start in ODI cricket as compared to Rohit Sharma but after the initial burst, Shahzad could not continue with his good run-of-form while Virat and Rohit went on to become legends of the game. In an interview with Cricingif, Shehzad opened up on his constant comparisons with Virat.

“We tend to compare two players without focussing on their respective backgrounds. For any payer to succeed, it requires the backing of the coach, captain, and cricket board. In short, he or she needs confidence in order to do well, ” Ahmed Shehzad, told Cricingif.

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Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma had MS Dhoni to back them: Ahmed Shehzad

Shehzad reckoned that unless a player is not given the desired support and a longer rope to prove his worth, he will never grow in confidence and will always try to fight for survival. He opined that the likes of Virat and Rohit had unrelenting support from their captain, MS Dhoni, during the initial part of their career.

“Unless and until a player is given required support and a longer rope, his or her confidence won’t increase. Then, they tend to fight for survival. If you look at the backgrounds of Virat, Rohit Sharma, Joe Root, Kane Williamson and Babar Azam, they have been really lucky as well. Kohli had revealed that he was going to be dropped from plenty of series but MS Dhoni backed him. Same was the case with Rohit Sharma. Thus, faith was instilled upon them by Dhoni,” Shehzad added.

Ahmed Shehzad last played for Pakistan during the T20I series against Sri Lanka at home, post which he was dropped.

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