Former Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar predicted a bright future for Virat Kohli — but only if he gives up on playing T20I cricket and concentrates on ODIs and Tests during an exclusive conversation with Sports Tak while playing for the Asia Lions in the Legends League Cricket (LLC) masters.
Kohli's numbers in T20I cricket are not as impressive as in the other two formats, with one century of his 75 international tons coming in T20Is. Afridi believes that time is still on Kohli's side and he can go on for good 6-8 more years.
“As a cricketer, I would advise Kohli to stop playing T20I and just focus on ODIs and Tests. He is an exciting player in the middle and I think, T20Is take a lot of energy and he needs to save it now. If he does so, he’s just 34 and can easily play 6-8 years from now. Even if, from now on, he plays 50 Tests he can easily hit 25 hundreds,” Akhtar told Sports Tak.
Kohli, during the fourth Test between India and Australia, smashed his 28th century in Tests and 75th in international cricket ending his century drought in red-ball cricket that has lasted for 1,204 days.
Prior to his century in Ahmedabad, Kohli had gone 41 innings without scoring a century in Tests. During this time period, Kohli managed to score only six half-centuries in red-ball cricket. He finished his innings with 186 runs as India went on to draw the match and win the series 2-2
Akhtar wants Virat to concentrate on his game, and said that the Indian batter and Pakistan skipper Babar Azam are gaming the greatest players from Asia, ”Kohli should continue playing and should stop hearing the criticism he faces quite often. Both Virat and Babar are great players from our continent.”
The former India skipper has smashed 75 international centuries and is second to Sachin Tendulkar’s 100 hundreds. He will hope to continue his form in the upcoming World Test Championship (WTC) final in June, followed by the Asia Cup and the ODI World Cup respectively. With many tournaments coming up, a lot will be expected of Kohli and hopefully, he will inch closer to breaking this record.
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