Watch: Kohli's birthday begins early with adorable Maxwell message on live TV
Star India batter Virat Kohli will celebrate his birthday tomorrow, i.e. – November 5. While Virat, his plethora of fans and the entire Indian team will have plans on the special day, it seems as if birthday has come early for Kohli. A day before the former India captain turns 34, birthday wishes are storming in already for Kohli as Australia all-rounder Glenn Maxwell dropped a heart-warming message for Kohli on live TV.
After Australia's narrow four-run win over Afghanistan at the T20 World Cup, Maxwell was up for an interview with renowned sports broadcaster Neroli Meadows. It is important to note that despite Australia's semi-final hopes depending on the outcome of the England vs Sri Lanka match, Maxwell appeared in good spirits when he wished his Royal Challengers Bangalore teammate Kohli in advance.
"Yeah, so tomorrow, I just want to wish a very happy birthday to one of my very good friends, Virat Kohli. Hope you have a great day. I'll send you a text anyway. Enjoy, mate," said Maxwell.
Watch the video below:
Kohli and Maxwell have been teammates at RCB for two seasons. Maxwell joined RCB from Punjab Kings (formerly Kings XI Punjab) in 2021 after enduring a horror season with the 2014 IPL runner-up which saw him struggle and score just 108 runs from 14 matches. The following year, Maxwell hit top gear as he amassed 511 runs from 15 games at a strike-rate of 144.10, a season where he hit six half-centuries. At the IPL mega-auction, Maxwell was retained by RCB for ₹11 crore and scored 301 runs from 13 games in IPL 2022.
Back to the Afghanistan game, Maxwell was adjudged the Player of the Match for his innings of 54 not out off 32 balls which lifted Australia to 168/8. An all-rounder in the team, Maxwell did not get to bowl but took a smart catch to dismiss Najibullah Zadran.
"It was nice to have an impact in the field. I knew I wasn't going to have much of an impact with the ball with the conditions they were. To have an impact is nice. During the day, it was quite slow and taking spin, it was holding up a little bit," he added.
While Maxwell praised Afghanistan for the fight their batters showed, he knows what is at stake on Saturday as England face Sri Lanka in the final Group 1 match. An England win will see them go through and join New Zealand in the semifinals, whereas for Australia to qualify for the semis, the already knocked out Sri Lanka need to beat Jos Buttler and his team. Maxwell, who found himself in a similar situation a few months back during the IPL, said he and the Aussies will be cheering the Lankans on in the crunch game in Sydney tomorrow.
"Afghanistan played really well, they struck the ball really cleanly. At the start, they put us under pressure in the powerplay. We were able to hold them back but then there was some pretty clean hitting towards the back end and gave us a bit of a scare," Maxwell said.
"It was quite hard to press the issue. We got to about the 12th over mark where we just had to put a total on the board to make sure we gave ourselves a chance of winning the game. Even though we were trying to go hard, they (Afghanistan) bowled extremely well in the last four overs. They executed their plans and it was hard to get away. We'll be following it (England vs Sri Lanka), we put ourselves in this situation, but hopefully Sri Lanka can do the job for us."
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