Pakistan’s legendary pacer Shoaib Akhtar wants Virat Kohli to retire from T20 Internationals after the T20 World Cup so that he can keep his energy saved for longer formats of the game.
Shoaib Akhtar was in complete awe of Virat Kohli and applauded him for the brilliant knock which helped the Indian Team to beat Pakistan in a crucial super-12 stage game of the T20 World Cup.
Shoaib Akhtar doesn’t want Virat Kohli to put his entire energy into the shortest format.
The former has his own YouTube channel where he usually gives his feedback about the games and individual performances. Just as the Indian Team defeated the Pakistan side, Akhtar took no time in applauding one of the best T20 knocks played by Kohli.
“According to me, he played the greatest innings of his life against Pakistan. He played like this because he had the self-belief that he will do it. He is back with a bang. I want him to retire from T20I because I don’t want that he puts his entire energy into T20I cricket. With similar commitment like today, he can score three centuries in ODIs,” Shoaib said on his YouTube channel.
Shoaib also recalled how Virat was badly criticized for his lean patch with the bat just before he played some crucial knocks in the Asia Cup along with the hundred against Afghanistan.
“He was down and out for 3 years, he didn’t score runs, he was stripped of his captaincy, and a lot of people said a lot of things to him. People even dragged his family into it, but he kept training and put in the graft, and just a day before Diwali, he played a firecracker on an innings. He decided that this place and this stage is perfect for his comeback,” Shoaib complimented Kohli.
Virat Kohli’s knock of 82 not out off just 53 balls at the Melbourne Cricket Ground was rated very high by the cricket pundits. Virat himself rated the knock as his best T20 knock as he compared it with his knock against Australia that came in the 2016 T20 World Cup at Mohali.