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'Shahid Bhai, best wishes, always a pleasure playing against you'
In a heartwarming show of sportsmanship and camaraderie, the Indian cricket team sent a special retirement gift to Shahid Afridi by presenting him a Virat Kohli shirt signed by all the players.
Pakistani journalist Faizan Lakhani uploaded the shirt on which Kohli wrote: "Shahid Bhai, best wishes, always a pleasure playing against you".
The jersey -- number 18 and VIRAT on it -- had the signatures of Kohli, Ashish Nehra, Suresh Raina, Mohammed 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 Test 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 Harbhajan Singh, Habibul Bashar, Ian Bell, Shane Bond, Mike Hussey, Kumar Sangakkara and Graeme Smith.
Image: Virat Kohli, left, with Shahid Afridi during the ICC World T20 match in Kolkata in March 2016.
Photograph: PTI