Former Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar was extremely popular for his electrifying pace and ability to scare the batters irrespective of the conditions. Apart from his fiery bowling, Akhtar is also well-known for voicing his opinions on several topics.
Recently, Akhtar has made a bold claim involving Indian superstar Virat Kohli. The ‘Rawalpindi Express’ reckoned that had he played against Kohli, the Delhi-born genius batter wouldn’t have scored so many runs in his career.
Notably, Akhtar and Kohli had squared off against one another just once, back in 2010 in the Asia Cup. However, in that match, the legendary Pakistan pacer didn’t get the chance to bowl to Kohli.
In a chat with Sportskeeda, Akhtar revealed that he would have restricted Kohli to just 20-25 centuries in his career.
“Virat Kohli is a good person and a big cricketer, and you only expect big words from big players. And I thank him a lot for that. But, if I would have played against Virat Kohli, then he would not have scored these many runs, but whatever he would have scored, those would have been fabulous, and it would look that he fought hard for those runs,” said Akhtar.
“He may not have had 50 centuries. 20 or 25 may at the most, but those would have been valiant hundreds. I would have gotten the best out of Virat Kohli,” he added.
Kohli is currently undergoing a bad patch as he hasn’t scored a century in his past 100 innings across the formats. The 33-year-old was dismissed on a golden duck in his most recent outing with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022.
