Bayern Munich picks Indian batting superstar as Manuel Neuer’s cricket equivalent 

German football giant Bayern Munich has named star Indian batter Virat Kohli as the cricket equivalent of Manuel Neuer, widely regarded as one of the finest goalkeepers of all time. Bayern Munich made the observation in reply to a fan query on its official X handle on Tuesday, February 27.

While Neuer, who represents the German national team and Bayern Munich, is a football legend without a doubt, Kohli is considered by many cricket experts and fans as the greatest batter of the modern era.

On Tuesday night, a user named Dylan Powell posted a query on Bayern Munich’s official X handle and asked:

“Name 2 athletes from different sports who are cross-sports equivalents to each other.”

Bayern Munich picked Neuer and Kohli in response to the query. The names of the two sporting superstars were shared with ‘Goat’ emojis.

Kohli became a father for the second time when his wife Anushka Sharma gave birth to a baby boy earlier this month. The star couple took to their respective social media handles last week to announce the good news to their fans and well-wishers.

“With abundant happiness and our hearts full of love, we are pleased to inform everyone that on 15th February, we welcomed our baby boy Akaay/अकाय & Vamika's little brother into this world! We seek your blessings and good wishes in this beautiful time in our lives. We request you to kindly respect our privacy at this time. Love & Gratitude. Virat & Anushka," a joint statement issued by Kohli and Anushka read.

Earlier, the couple’s first child, a baby girl named Vamika, was born in January 2021.

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India have beaten England in the Test series despite Virat Kohli’s absence

One of the seniormost members of the Indian cricket team, Kohli pulled out of the ongoing Test series against England. Although the batter skipped the series citing personal, reports about Anushka’s pregnancy had been doing the rounds for the last couple of months. Neither Kohli nor Anushka, however, confirmed the news until their post about the birth of their baby boy recently.

Despite Kohli’s absence from the Test series, India have taken an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-match series. The hosts lost the first in Hyderabad by 28 runs in spite of taking a 196-run first-innings lead. However, they fought back strongly to clinch the next three matches in Visakhapatnam (106 runs), Rajkot (434 runs) and Ranchi (five wickets).

The fifth and final Test of the India-England series will be played at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamsala from March 7.