People tell me that you praise Virat Kohli a lot, I just say, why shouldn't I do that: Shoaib Akhtar

Former Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Akhtar has expressed his thoughts on always heaping immense praise on star India cricketer Virat Kohli. Akhtar has always been supportive of Kohli even during the latter's lean patch.

Kohli is considered as one of the greatest batters in the modern era. He boasts of owning some of the most terrific records. He has also gone onto break the records created by legends with utmost ease. However, even this great batter had gone through a very low-patch in his career which almost ended in Asia Cup 2022.

In the recent turn of events, the former speedster explained why he praises Kohli so much and added that there was a time when India used to win solely based on Kohli's centuries.

Tum Virat ki bohot tareef karte ho - Shoaib Akhtar reveals reason

“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,” the 47-year-old said while speaking to Bol News, as quoted by the Hindustan Times.

The former fast bowler stated that he takes immense pride in being Indian star's loudest cheerleader. Through his game, the 34-year-old had on multiple occasions squeezed out India from the toughest of situations single-handedly.

Akhtar made an interesting comparison between Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar. He said that even Sachin Tendulkar was one of the greatest batters of all time. But there was a time even he was faltering, because he was appointed as captain. Tendulkar realised that captaincy was not his cup of tea, so he himself gave up on the position and decided to concentrate more on his batting which led him to have better numbers with the bat. 

This was very much the case with Kohli as his blistering form had suffered a major blow when he was appointed captain. Balancing both playing and captaining seemed to be too much for him. However, since Kohli has left off captaincy duties, it is expected that he will perform with much ease and less pressure which was very much evident in T20 WC 2022.

“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 signed off.

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