Shahnawaz Dahani connects Virat Kohli with fans from Gadani

ADELAIDE: Indian hard-hitter Virat Kohli thanked his young fans representing the "Rashidi artists group" from Pakistan who paid a tribute to the batter by drawing his portrait on the Gadani beach in Balochistan's Hub district.

Their art garnered them the label "Gadani boys" by Pakistan's pacer Shahnawaz Dahani who shared their artwork with Kohli during the ongoing T20 World Cup taking place in Australia and conveyed his appreciation to the young men on Twitter.

The group of artists formed a striking sand portrait of India's star player and garnered immense appreciation on social media.

One of the artists of the group, Sameer Shoukat, took to Twitter to share the portrait which caught Dahani's attention after which he replied to his tweet today.

"We have made a portrait for Virat Kohli," said Sami Shaukat, one of the members of the Rashidi artists group.

Like many people on social media, Kohli's viral portrait landed the group love and appreciation from the legend himself.

Dahani tweeted a picture of himself and Kohli with their artwork visible on his smartphone.

 "This is for you Gadani boys. Virat was very happy about this and says thank you to your whole group and he really loved it," disclosed Dahani with a picture with Kohli, who was showing the portrait towards the camera.

Kohli is one of the most followed Indian cricketers in Pakistan. Recently, when he was out of form, a lot of Pakistan cricket fans sent good wishes to him on social media.