Australian player Marcus Stoinis, currently representing the Punjab Kings in the Indian Premier League (IPL), said that he still remains in touch with Indian star Virat Kohli, a connection which goes way back to their U-19 days when Kohli led won the World Cup with his team in 2008.
“We’ve known each other for a long time. We’ve got a mutual friend in Perth that has known him for a long time as well. So that’s sort of how that relationship started. But yeah, what a great career it’s been so far. It’s definitely not finished. It seems like he’s worn a few caps throughout his career in terms of being the young guy coming into an Indian team that forced his way in there at such a young age and showed such confidence in himself to crack into such a good team to then leading the team and almost changing the whole culture of Indian cricket and inspiring a lot of the young cricketers around India and around the world,” Stoinis said to PTI.
“And then a whole new phase of the fitness side of things as well that he inspired in the Indian set-up to now mentoring the new kids on the block. And he’s got his family now as well. I think all of those phases have served a purpose, not only for himself, but as a mentor for the wider public and the cricket community. So always hats off to him, to be honest,” added Stoinis.
On Tuesday, Stoinis scored a 15-ball 20 as Punjab Kings posted 243 against the Gujarat Titans in their IPL encounter. The Titans, led by Shubman Gill, ultimately fell 11 runs short as the Kings under captain Shreyas Iyer started their campaign with a win.
Kohli, meanwhile, starred with a gritty half century against defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders, guiding his Royal Challengers Bengaluru outfit to a win against them.
Stoinis and Kohli will next come face to face on April 18, when RCB host PBKS in Bengaluru.
