'What a change in 4 yrs' - Fans recalled the old statement of Virat Kohli after he praised the Pakistani skipper Babar Azam

India and Pakistan are all set to lock horns within a few hours in a much-anticipated encounter in the Asia Cup 2022. It will be the first time after the last clash in T20 World Cup 2021 when both teams will be facing each other in international cricket. The match is scheduled to play at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.

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Just before the commencement of the match, a statement from the former Indian skipper and senior batter Virat Kohli made it to the headlines of social media. He has recently praised the Pakistani skipper and world number one batter Babar Azam before the clash between India and Pakistan.

“Babar Azam is probably the best batsman in world cricket right now,” said Kohli

Although, Kohli’s statement didn’t go down well with the Indian cricket fans and they lashed out at him.

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Here's how fans reacted:

What a change in 4 yrs ..sad to see ur fall ..can you stop talking and take a break for a while

— Hemanth (@hemanth__12) August 27, 2022

Miss that old Kohli...now sucks a lot both on & off the field.

— A. Gupta 🇮🇳 (@ankkit_9318) August 27, 2022

Anuska emasculated him.

— 🤬 (@Al_kattu) August 27, 2022

Yes leave ASAP @imVkohli

— ß (@Shazam_15) August 27, 2022

Hypocrisy @imVkohli 😹😹 pic.twitter.com/8FqKPFFz5p

— ️️ ️️️️️️️️️ ️️ ️️ ️️ (@Holululu_) August 27, 2022

Fans also recalled an old statement in which Kohli responded very harshly to a comment from a fan and said:

“Don’t live in India if you love batsmen from other countries,” said Kohli in 2018

Fans went on to call this hypocrisy and a change in Kohli within the last four years. Speaking of what happened in 2018, then a fan asked Kohli something about the other batters of the world cricket like Steve Smith and a few others.

It didn’t go smoothly with Kohli and he lashed out at the fan by saying that he should not live in India if he loves batsmen from other countries than India.

Virat Kohli enduring a poor run of form for the last couple of years

Notably, the 33-year-old senior batter is enduring a poor run of form with the bat for the last couple of years in international cricket. He is struggling for his 71^st international century since the last one he scored against Bangladesh in a Test match three years back in 2019.

He also failed on the Indian team’s tour of England earlier this year. He couldn’t even score a single half-century on the entire tour. Then, the management rested him for the bilateral white-ball clashes against West Indies and Zimbabwe.

He will be back in action during the first match of India in the Asia Cup 2022 against the men in green.