Indian team’s warm sign-off for Afridi

New Delhi: In a heartwarming show of sportsmanship and camaraderie, the Indian cricket team sent a special retirement gift to Shahid Afridi by presenting him with a Virat Kohli shirt signed by all the players.

A Pakistani journalist uploaded the picture of the shirt on which Kohli wrote: “Shahid Bhai, best wishes, always a pleasure playing against you”.

The jersey — number 18 and with VIRAT on it — had the signatures of Kohli, Ashish Nehra, Suresh Raina, Mohammad Shami, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ajinkya Rahane, Shikhar Dhawan, Ravichandran Ashwin, Hardik Pandya, among others.

The 37-year-old Afridi bid adieu to his 21-year-old international career in February when he announced his retirement from the T20 version of cricket. He had already retired from Tests and One-Day formats of the game.

He was recently announced as one of eight Champion Ambassadors for the Champions Trophy to be held in the United Kingdom from June 1 to 18, along with Harbhajan Singh, Habibul Bashar, Ian Bell, Shane Bond, Mike Hussey, Kumar Sangakkara and Graeme Smith.