Mohammad Nabi is proud to share his record of most T20I MoM awards with Virat Kohli

Former Afghanistan captain Mohammad Nabi was leading the table of bagging the most number of Man of the Match awards in T20Is — 12 — till India skipper, Virat Kohli touched him in Hyderabad last Friday. The ace batsman belted 94 not out in only 50 balls to give his team a remarkable win a high-scoring chase against the West Indies. The show earned him the best player’s award in the game and it was his 12th in the format, putting him on the same level as Nabi.

Nabi, whose 12th man of the match award came against Bangladesh in September, was not sad to share his feat with Kohli at the moment. Speaking to bdcrictime over the phone, the 35-year-old Afghanistan all-rounder said he was proud to share the record with the world’s top batsman. He also put up a humble face to say that he might soon lose the race to the Indian batsman.

“Look, India has been playing so many matches. World’s all teams want to play against India. Whereas, our team has limited opportunities to play against all teams at regular intervals and this will enable Kohli to surpass the record soon,” he said.

Mohammad Nabi has played one game more than Virat Kohli

There is not much difference between the two players in terms of games they have played to get those awards. While Nabi has taken 75 games, Kohli has done it playing one game less.

Former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi is in the third position with 11 awards from 99 appearances for both his country and the ICC.

Nabi, like Kohli, also played the West Indies in his latest series and he is looking to play against the Indian captain. “I don’t know when I will get a chance against Kohli to play…maybe in the World Cup or the Asia Cup”, Nabi, who has retired from Test cricket, added.

“Getting Player of the Match in any format is a good recognition, though in Test matches more players get a chance as the Test marches are played for five days. In limited over games all players may not get the opportunity to compete for the award”, Nabi, who had almost single-handedly pulled off a memorable win over India in the World Cup, said. Nabi made his T20I debut in February 2010, just months ahead of Kohli.

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