After Gautam Gambir's rebuttal, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina respond to Shahid Afridi's Kashmir tweet

After Gautam Gambhir’s heated reply to former Pakistan cricketer Shahid Afridi’s remarks on the Kashmir issue, India captain Virat Kohli and batsman Suresh Raina weighed in their opinion on the issue, both batting in favour of India. Afridi caused a storm in India after writing about the “appalling and worrisome situation ongoing in Indian Occupied Kashmir” on Twitter, after reports came in of 13 militants and four civilians being killed in army encounters in South Kashmir earlier this week. Kohli, in response to Afridi’s post, said that his interests are always in the benefit of the nation, and that he would never support anything that would oppose it. [caption id=“attachment_4404125” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File picture of Virat Kohli. AP[/caption] “As an Indian you want to express what is best for your nation and my interests are always for the benefit of our nation. If anything opposes it, I would never support it for sure,” Kohli was quoted as saying according to ANI, adding that it is Afridi’s choice to comment on “certain issues”. Raina, who made a comeback into the Indian team during the recent tour of South Africa, tweeted about Kashmir being an integral part of India, and that it will continue to remain so.

Kashmir is an integral part of India and will remain so always. Kashmir is the pious land where my forefathers were born. I hope @SAfridiOfficial bhai asks Pakistan Army to stop terrorism and proxy war in our Kashmir. We want peace, not bloodshed and violence. 🙏

— Suresh Raina🇮🇳 (@ImRaina) April 4, 2018

  India’s 1983 World Cup-winning captain Kapil Dev too criticised Afridi for his comments, saying that certain people should not be given importance. “Who is he? Why are we giving importance to him? We should not be giving importance to certain people,” Dev was quoted as saying according to ANI. Former India player Mohammad Kaif said Afridi would not have made the comments had Pakistani cricketers were still playing in the Indian Premier League. “‘Paisa Bolta Hai’. Can’t imagine Afridi making these comments if Pakistani players were still playing in the IPL. Rather, what’s needed to be condemned foremost is the reason because of which Pakistani players are not allowed to play in the IPL - Infiltration from Pakistani terrorists and Pakistan’s support to separatists,” Kaif wrote on his Twitter handle. “We wish peace and love but peace is a two way street,” he added. Javed Akhtar also expressed the same sentiments. “Dear Mr Afridi , since you want to see a peaceful JK sans any human rights violations could you please see to it that pak terrorists stop infiltrations n pak army stops supporting the separatists by closing down the training camps. It will greatly help in solving the problem,” wrote the veteran artist. Gambhir, who had engaged in a famous on-field spat with Afridi during Pakistan’s tour of India in 2007, lashed out at the former Pakistan captain by saying that he “is only looking for @UN which in his retarded dictionary means “UNDER NINTEEN” his age bracket.” With inputs from PTI