Cricket News

Shoaib Akhtar makes a massive statement on Virat Kohli, compares him with Sachin Tendulkar

Virat Kohli proved everyone wrong when he slammed a maiden T20I hundred against Afghanistan in the Asia Cup 2022. Kohli made 122 off 61 balls and was also India’s best batter in the 20-20 World Cup in Australia where he scored 296 runs in six matches at an average of 98.66 and a strike rate of 136.40.

He also slammed an unbeaten 82 off 53 balls against Pakistan. Kohli had a rough phase of form before that as he had been scoring runs but he was not able to churn up the big scores consistently. Cricketers and people wanted Kohli to come out of his bad patch and for him to score runs. One among them was former Pakistan pacer, Shoaib Akhtar.

Kohli has scored 40 centuries in run chases for India- Shoaib Akhtar

Akthar made a big statement about Kohli and compared him to Sachin Tendulkar. “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,” Akhtar said on Suno 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 added. Kohli recently got into the top five run-getters in ODI cricket.

Kohli has not been able to replicate his form in white-ball cricket in Test cricket. He has been found wanting against spin bowling and has been troubled by the likes of Taijul Islam and Mehidi Hasan in Bangladesh and the home series against Australia, he has been troubled by Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy and Matt Kuhemann. Fans will be hoping he gets back his mojo in Tests soon.