Amit Mishra SLAMS Shahid Afridi for retirement advice to Virat Kohli, says ‘some people RETIRE only once’

Former India leg-spinner Amit Mishra, commenting on Zee News English story on Twitter, wrote, “Dear Afridi, some people retire only once so please spare Virat Kohli from all this.”

Former India leg-spinner Amit Mishra has slammed ex-Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi, who tried to give retirement advice to Virat Kohli. Afridi has tried to suggest to Kohli, who scored his 71st international century last week, that the former India captain should try to retire on a high.

Mishra, commenting on Zee News English story on Twitter, wrote, “Dear Afridi, some people retire only once so please spare Virat Kohli from all this.”

Mishra’s reply soon went viral on social media with over 21,000 like on Twitter. Afridi, meanwhile, had tried to suggest that Kohli is headed towards retirement.

“The way Virat has played, the start that he had to his career, there was struggle initially before he made a name for himself. He is a champion and I believe there comes a stage when you are headed towards retirement. But in that scenario, the aim should be to go out on a high,” Afridi said on Samaa TV.

“It shouldn't reach a stage where you are dropped from the team and instead when you are at your peak. It seldom happens though. Very few players, especially cricketers from Asia make that decision, but I feel when Virat does it, he will do it style and probably in the same manner in which he started his career,” the former all-rounder added.

Kohli completed his maiden T20I hundred in Team India's last match of Asia Cup 2022 in Dubai on Thursday night (September 8). Kohli opened the innings, in absence of regular opener Rohit Sharma, and once settled, started playing his shots. This is his first 100 in T20Is. And most importantly, his first international hundred in more than 3 years. His fans had been waiting for this moment for more than 3 years with his last ton coming in a Test match in November of 2019. That was in a Test match vs Bangladesh. Since then, Virat has struggled for the big scores while he scored some 70s and 80s.

Mishra turned out in 22 Tests, 36 ODIs and 10 T20Is for India, claiming 76, 64 and 16 wickets in the three formats respectively. He also picked up 166 wickets in 154 IPL games in his career.