Self-Confidence, Thy Name Is ‘Virat Kohli’

A video that went viral after Virat Kohli smashed his 51st ODI century showed cricket fans in Murree, on the outskirts of the Islamabad-Rawalpindi metropolitan area, cheering for the Indian batting star and celebrating his heroics against their own team, rather boisterously. Pakistani cricket fans have, in the past, applauded Virat’s batting prowess in stadiums, but this is different. It proves one of two things—either the Pakistani fans are so disillusioned with their team and their sub-par performances that they have shed all their inhibitions that stopped them from openly applauding an Indian player on Pakistani soil or, to quote a fan comment on social media, the “craze of King Kohli doesn’t know borders”. But this is no ordinary border. Can you imagine a similar screening of an India-Pakistan match in India, where the crowd applauds and celebrates a century by a Pakistani batsman?