The India and Pakistan matches have always been of huge importance in both the countries. This is partly because of the continued rivalry between the two countries over the decades. This rivalry is in walks of life, from sports to entertainment to geography. Many steps have been taken to ease this tension, some successfully and some in vain.
One such effort, the Indian National Cricket team gifted the former captain of Pakistan Shahid Afridi Indian Captain Virat Kohli’s jersey with signatures and best wishes of retirement from the members of the team. This is not the first Virat showed sportsmanship, at the end of India-Pakistan match in Eden Gardens last year Virat gifted his bat to Mohammad Amir of Pakistan team.
This incident came to light after a Pakistan journalist got hold of the t-shirt gifted to Shahid Afridi, which says, ‘Always a pleasure playing against you‘. The journalist, Faizan Lakhani, posted this picture on Twitter and has gone viral on Social Media.
Virat Kohli’s shirt, signed by Indian team, for Shahid Afridi, with a message “always a pleasure playing against you.” pic.twitter.com/KexlCjTNeZ
— Faizan Lakhani (@faizanlakhani) April 15, 2017
The identifiable signatures on the shirt include Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Ashish Nehra, Jasprit Bumrah, Suresh Raina, Pawan Negi, Mohammed Shami, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ajinkya Rahane, Shikhar Dhawan, R Ashwin, Hardik Pandya, and coach Ravi Shashtri
Afridi announced his retirement in February from all formats of the international game bringing his 21-year career in the international format as a player to an end. Afridi has played 27 tests, 398 ODIs and 98 T20 International matches in his career.