"Some people retire only once" - Amit Mishra trolls Shahid Afridi for retirement comment on Virat Kohli

Indian leg-spinner Amit Mishra has taken a cheeky dig at former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi for his recent comments on Virat Kohli.

Afridi advised Kohli that whenever he feels the time has come to hang up his boots, the former Indian skipper should bow out while still at the top of his game.

Mishra took exception to these comments. Posting on Twitter, he brought up Afridi's multiple retirements and comebacks and asked him to "spare" Kohli from such conversations. He wrote:

"Dear Afridi, some people retire only once so please spare Virat Kohli from all this."

Here's what Afridi told Samaa TV regarding Kohli:

"The way Virat has played, the start that he had to his career, there was a struggle initially before he made a name for himself. He is a champion and I believe there comes a stage when you are headed towards retirement. But in that scenario, the aim should be to go out on a high.

"It shouldn't reach a stage where you are dropped from the team and instead when you are at your peak. It seldom happens though. Very few players, especially cricketers from Asia make that decision, but I feel when Virat does it, he will do it style and probably in the same manner in which he started his career."

Afridi officially retired five times in his 22-year-long international career. He first announced his retirement from Test cricket in 2006 before making a U-turn just two weeks later. The former Pakistani all-rounder finally bid adeue to the format in 2010.

He then retired from white-ball international cricket in 2011, but changed his mind after five months. The 42-year-old finally retired from ODIs and T20Is in 2015 and 2017, respectively.

Virat Kohli named in India's T20 World Cup 2022 squad

With his form taking a dip in recent years, some fans started envisaging Kohli to take a break from ODIs or T20Is to elongate his Test career. But all that was put to rest with his 71st international century - an explosive 122* (61) against Afghanistan in the recently concluded Asia Cup.

He's now an important part of India's squad for the 2022 T20 World Cup, which will start in Australia next month.

India's squad: Rohit Sharma (C), KL Rahul (VC), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (WK), Dinesh Karthik (WK), Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, and Arshdeep Singh.