Former Pakistan gun fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar has opined that he wants Virat Kohli to score 100 centuries and break Sachin Tendulkar’s record. Sachin had scored 49 centuries in the ODI format whereas he amassed 51 hundred in the Test format. On the other hand, Virat Kohli has already scored 70 centuries in his illustrious career, scoring 43 ODI and 27 Test centuries.
However, Kohli scored his last International century back in November 2019 in the pink-ball Test match against Bangladesh. Since then Kohli hasn’t been consistent and he has failed to reach the three-digit mark in International cricket.
Meanwhile, Kohli scored 59 runs against Hong Kong in the team’s second match of the Asia Cup but didn’t look at his absolute best. He had scored 35 runs off 34 balls in the team’s opening clash of the tournament against arch-rivals Pakistan.
“Virat Kohli hasn’t been middling the ball really well. Both innings were quite patchy. He scored 59, I wish him the best. Mera ye hi mashwara hoga Kohli ko ki dekh lo World Cup tak (My only suggestion to Kohli is to just wait till the T20 World Cup), if this format suits your or doesn’t suit you. 30 centuries karni hain aur aage (you have to score 30 more centuries),” said Akthar on his YouTube Channel.
“You can become the greatest player forever. You have to convince yourself that you are the greatest ever. This is going to be the hardest 30 centuries — if he scores. When he goes to the longest formats, he will get time to settle. Here, he is trying but the time is less, you have to maintain a good strike rate, you have to ensure the team wins. He is positive, he is aggressive.. he is a great player, but I really want him to score 100 centuries and break Sachin Tendulkar’s record. It looks impossible right now, but this man can do it,” said Akthar.
Meanwhile, there was a time when Virat Kohli was scoring centuries for fun, especially in the ODI format. However, he is going through a rough patch, which has definitely given him new lessons in his career.
Kohli will look to bounce back stronger and he had recently taken a one-month gap from the game, which must have definitely helped him.
