Virat Kohli just cannot seem to get out of the headlines. It seems like whatever he does will be at the center of attention. The star batsman finally announced his arrival to form by smashing that elusive 71st ton, and having a very good tournament with the bat in general. Scoring 276 runs in the tournament at a strike rate of close to 150, Kohli has geared up for the upcoming T20 World Cup in style and has posed a threat to the rest of the world with his performances.
However, it seems like a lot of the so-called experts have been generating a lot of buzz with their various takes on Kohli. In the last few days, the topic concerning Kohli, which has been doing a lot of rounds is his retirement from the T20 format.
Now, after having a rather brilliant tournament, and by answering your critics as well, you’d think that retiring from this format would be the last thing on anyone speaking about him currently. Well, you thought wrong. Apparently, it is becoming the flavour of the month type of thing, especially on the other side of the border. A few days ago, former Pak skipper Shahid Afridi said that Virat Kohli should “take the right call and retire”, which was not well received. However, even Shoaib Akhtar has now gone on and advocated a similar point of view.
The former Pakistani pacer, who himself was an emblem of controversy in his playing days, and is now a firebrand analyst/pundit, said that in order to have a longer international career which will bear him more fruit, Kohli should retire from t20s. He also added, ” If I was him, I would look at the larger picture and take the call”.
While Akhtar is normally held in high regard in India, this statement rubbed a lot of shoulders in India the wrong way, and obviously, he has been relentlessly slammed by a vast majority of fans, with quite a lot of them telling him to stay away from these matters.
One user pointed out, “I think everyone can see the storm of comeback, which they are perceiving”. While some have dismissed the “advice” as a statement that was made to generate views and likes. The fans were even more outraged by this fact because in recent weeks, Akhtar was openly advocating Kohli to reach that elusive 100-ton mark, and were rather upset on seeing this statement right after he scored his 71st.
Well if Indian fans are to be believed, maybe Shoaib Akhtar should just stick to talking about Pakistan and it’s state of cricket affairs rather than poking in his nose in the matters on the Indian side.