kohli and shoaib akhtar sportstiger

Virat Kohli has established himself as one of the most consistent cricketers in the history of the game. The India batter has scored 75 centuries and stands in the second position in terms of most international centuries. Kohli has 46 centuries in ODIs, 28 centuries in Tests, and a solitary ton in T20Is. The batter also gets backing from former cricketers to break Sachin Tendulkar’s ultimate record of hundred centuries. 

Former Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar has also backed Kohli to get more than a hundred centuries. However, Akhtar has said that Kohli will need to play for more than nine years. 

“I appeal to Virat to play till the age of 43 years, you have eight or nine years more. India aapko wheelchair mein bhi khilayega and they will make you reach 100-100’s. (India will make you play in a wheelchair also). I feel he will score at least 110 hundreds by the time he retires,” Akhtar was quoted saying by the Indian Express.

The former Pakistan cricketer also claimed that Kohli would not have scored so many centuries if he played in his era. “If I, Waqar (Younis) and Wasim bhai (Akram) would have been at our peak, then Virat ko mushkil bahut hoti (then Virat would have found it tough). We sledged a lot and being a Punjabi, he would have reacted. Hum usko tang bahut karte (we would have needled him a lot),” said Akhtar. 

“If he had played in our times, then he might not have had these 70-odd hundreds, he might have scored 30-50 hundred but those hundreds would have been of a different class,” Akhtar further stated.