Former India captain Virat Kohli© BCCI
Virat Kohli has had a difficult time of late as a batter. He has not scored an international century since November 2019 and struggled to get going in IPL 2022. The former Indian cricket team captain could not perform up to the expectation in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022. Playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore, Kohli scored 341 runs in 16 matches at an average of 22.73. He scored two half-centuries, but failed to take his team into the IPL final. While there have been mixed reactions to Kohli’s dry spell, several former cricketers have come down hard on him after his recent string of poor scores.
However, former Pakistan pace great Shoaib Akhtar has come out in support of Kohli.
“You say good things about Virat Kohli. Give him respect. Why do you not give Virat Kohli respect? As a Pakistani I am saying, he is the greatest player of all time. I can bet that he will score 110 centuries,” Akhtar said in an interview to Sportskeeda Cricket.
Then in a direct message to Kohli, Akhtar said: “Don’t get afraid and you have to play till the age of 45. The current situation is preparing you to hit 110 centuries. People are writing you off, they are tweeting against you. You put out a post on Diwali, you are criticised. They tweet about your wife, your kid. Nothing can be worse than this. Nature is preparing you to score 110 tons. So, keep my words in mind and start slogging it out from today itself.”
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Kohli had hit a purple patch between 2015 to 2019 amassing centuries at will across formats and also guiding the team to greater heights.
But things have not gone his away since the beginning of the pandemic and Indian cricket fans would hope that Akhtar’s words inspire Kohli to come out with his best again.
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