‘I wanted Virat Kohli to marry after his retirement’ – Shoaib Akhtar feels marriage affected Indian batter’s career

Veteran Pakistani bowler Shoaib Akhtar was recently seen in an interview, talking about former Indian Captain Virat Kohli. Akhtar was asked about his views on the recent affairs happening in the Indian Cricket. He came up with interesting replies and also went on to state that he wanted Virat Kohli to get married after retiring. Read below, what all Shoaib Akhtar had to say about Kohli.

Being asked upon his views on the recent stepping down of Virat Kohli as the Indian test captain, Akhtar stressed on the fact that Kohli will now have reduced responsibilities. He said that Kohli should now focus more on his batting and prevent himself from getting dropped from any of the formats.

‘Wanted Virat Kohli to score 120 Centuries’ – Shoaib Akhtar

He mentioned an interesting desire of his to see Kohli scoring around 120 international centuries. Akhtar said that he didn’t want Kohli to become the Indian captain in the first place as it is an extra responsibility. He further added that he wanted Kohli to marry only after scoring over 100 centuries or after retiring.

As is known to all, Virat is married since 2017 and is father to an year old daughter as well. He led India as an all-format captain for a period of 7 years. Kohli gave up the T20 captaincy after the 2020 T20 World Cup and was sacked as the ODI captain in December 2020. He stepped down from the Test captaincy after the conclusion of the recent test series against South Africa.

Akhtar said that if he would have been a star player in India or had he been in Virat’s place, he would not have married. He said that he would have rather focused on his career and not even would have taken up captaincy. Though he then said that it is his way of thinking and he respects Virat’s personal decision. Famously known as ‘The Rawalpindi Express’, Shoaib Akhtar is one of the finest fast bowlers Pakistan has ever produced. He has 444 wickets across all three formats.

WATCH VIDEO: Virat Kohli dedicates fifty to his daughter Vamika; wife Anushka Sharma applauds

When asked to comment on the rumored rift between BCCI and Virat Kohli, Akhtar preferred not to speak much. He rather went on to say that what’s done is done and Virat should look forward to grab the opportunity he has still got with the bat.