“It will mark 110 centuries”: Shoaib Akhtar’s great prediction on Virat Kohli

Former Pakistani pacer Shoaib Akhtar believes Indian striker Virat Kohli will score 110 international centuries by the time he ends his career. After a wait of 1,205 days, Virat Kohli finally logged a Test century last week, pushing up triple figures on day four of the fourth Test against Australia in Ahmedabad. Kohli reminisced about his 28th century essay. There was a gap of 41 innings between his last century and this one, with the previous one coming over three years ago against Bangladesh in November 2019.

Kohli scored 186 points as his shot played a crucial role in helping India to a draw with Australia and ultimately book a Test World Championship final with Australia.

Kohli currently has a total of 75 international centuries to his name. He is second on the list of hitters with the most international tons, topped by Sachin Tendulkar.

Akhtar believes that with the burden of captaincy lifted from Kohli’s shoulders, he will score runs like a “beast” and cross the 100 century mark.

“Virat Kohli had to get back into shape so it’s nothing new for me. The pressure of the captaincy was on him, finally he’s now mentally free. Now he will play with so much focus. I have a confidence total in him that he is going to score 110 centuries and break Sachin Tendulkar’s international 100 ton record. Now he has no captain and will score like a beast,” Akhtar said while applauding Kohli as quoted by the ANI.

The ‘Rawalpindi Express’ has said that Sachin Tendulkar was his favorite wicket-stopper during his international career.

“I remember once I told my teammate that I would take Sachin’s wicket. At that time we were playing in Kolkata. From the first ball, I pocketed Sachin Tendulkar’s wicket in front of a crowd of 1 lakh. I still remember half the pitch became empty after Sachin came back,” Akhtar said.

(With ANI inputs)