Just a few days ago, ace Indian batter Virat Kohli ended his century drought in the longest format of the game. He notched his 28th Test hundred in Ahmedabad, taking his tally of international tons to 75. He had already edged past former Australian captain Ricky Ponting and now stands second on the list, only after master blaster Sachin Tendulkar who retired with 100 international centuries.
Though Kohli is 25 tons away from equalling Tendulkar’s long-standing record, the experts of the game often say the former India skipper will easily reach that colossal milestone. Not only just a hundred tons but Kohli would go ahead to get 110 centuries, and that has come from none other than former Pakistan captain Shoaib Akhtar.
Akhtar is one of the biggest admirers of Virat. The former cricketer believes that now the burden of captaincy is off Kohli’s shoulders, he will score runs like a beast and set a massive record of tons by the time he retires.
“Virat Kohli had to get back in form so it’s nothing new for me. The pressure of captaincy was on him, finally, he is now mentally free. Now he will play with so much focus. I have complete faith in him that he will score 110 centuries and break the record of Sachin Tendulkar’s 100 international tons. Now he doesn’t have a load of captaincy and will score run like a beast,” Akhtar said while applauding Kohli as quoted by ANI.
Shoaib, fondly known as the ‘Rawalpindi Express,’ further said Sachin was his favourite batter during his playing days. He recalled an old incident from a game played at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
“I remember once I told my teammate that I will take the wicket of Sachin. At that time, we were playing in Kolkata. On the very first ball, I bagged the wicket of Sachin Tendulkar in front of a 1 lakh crowd. I still remember half of the ground went empty after Sachin returned,” said Akhtar.
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