Virat Kohli, the Indian skipper has come a long way. He is currently one of the best batsmen around the world in all the formats of the game. He has been one of the most consistent performers for a long time now. However, there was a time when the cricketer wasn’t scoring many runs, but with his determination, passion, and hard-work, Virat Kohli has earned himself a title of the ‘modern legend’ of this game.
Recalling the tough phase of Virat Kohli, recently, on a YouTube show ‘Cricket Baaz’, Shoaib Akhtar talked about Virat Kohli’s formative years in international cricket and said he was a ‘brat’ in those years. He said that the Indian team management should be applauded for making Virat Kohli what he is today, by constantly backing him and showing faith in him.
Akhtar recalled the time when Virat wasn’t scoring many runs in the early 2010s and praised how Indian team management backed Virat Kohli during his hard times. He said:
“Virat Kohli has reached a whole new level, but who is behind the Kohli brand? In 2010, 2011, Kohli was nowhere to be seen. He was part of the circle; he was a brat like me. All of a sudden, the system supported him. The management went around him. He also realised that there’s a lot of reputation at stake,”
Shoaib Akhtar also talked about the constant comparisons of Virat with the batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar. Acknowledging the fact that Sachin played with some of the best bowlers in the cricket world, he said that it isn’t Virat’s fault that he wasn’t playing in that era. He said:
“It’s not his fault that he’s playing in an era of easy cricket, or if Sachin played in a tougher era or Wasim, Waqar and Inzamam have played a much more competitive brand of cricket. So if he’s scoring runs, what we can say about it,”
Meanwhile, Virat is currently in UAE, training hard for the much-awaited
IPL 2020. Virat will be seen leading his team Royal Challengers Bangalore in the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League, which will kickstart from September 19th in UAE.
