Sachin Tendulkar Was A Big Loss…: Shoaib Akhtar Namedrops Master Blaster While Making A Huge Remark On Virat Kohli
New Delhi: Former Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar has been a huge admirer of Virat Kohli. Akhtar has always been high in praise of Kohli and even when the experts were writing Virat off during his lean patch between 2019 and 2022, he was the one who always backed the Indian stalwart to come good.
The Rawalpindi Express has now revealed why he rates Virat Kohli as one of the best batters in world cricket. Akhtar said that Kohli has scored almost 40 centuries while chasing which is not an easy task to do. Citing the example of Sachin Tendulkar, who struggled during his stint as India captain, Akhtar pointed out why leaving captaincy was a good decision by Virat Kohli.
“See, I believe Sachin Tendulkar is the best batsman in the world. But as a captain, he was lost. He left the captaincy himself. I was talking to one of my friends about Virat Kohli and we were discussing the same thing. He was lost and when he works on his mind, he will perform. When his mind became free, he ruled the T20 World Cup,” said Akhtar on Bol News.
“You also need to look that almost 40 centuries from Kohli came in run chases. Log kehte hain tum Virat ki bohot tareef karte ho, main kehta hu kaise naa karu? (People tell me that you praise Virat Kohli a lot. I just say, why shouldn’t i do that?) During one stage, India used to win because of Virat’s hundreds,” Akhtar further said.
Virat Kohli went through a severe lean patch after the Cricket World Cup 2019. The batter failed to score a century for three years before he got the monkey off his back with a century against Afghanistan in the Asia Cup. He then had a terrific T20 World Cup where he was India’s top scorer. His unbeaten 82 off 53 against Pakistan truly announced Virat’s comeback to his peak form. Kohli then continued his juggernaut in the ODI series against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
The veteran batter well and truly is back to his best in limited overs cricket, however, his struggle in Tests is still on. Kohli has looked completely out of touch in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy. With India in a must-win situation against Australia in the fourth Test in Ahmedabad, Virat couldn’t get a better opportunity to announce his revival in Test cricket.