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Shoaib Akhtar Compares Virat Kohli to Sachin Tendulkar; Makes Bold Claims About Duo

image-leve7mfkSachin Tendulkar and Shoaib Akhtar had some of the most fierce battles (Twitter)

Indian greatest cricketer ever, Sachin Tendulkar, has shared countless anecdotes with his contemporary from the neighbouring nation, Shoaib Akhtar. However, the latter has always admired Tendulkar's successor, Virat Kohli, more.

The former Pakistan seamer has openly been the biggest endorser of Kohli from his nation, despite playing the majority of cricket against Tendulkar.

Akhtar has again applauded the modern-day great while comparing him with the Master Blaster.

"See, I believe Sachin Tendulkar is (was) the best batsman (batter) in the world. But as a captain, he was lost. He left the captaincy himself. I was talking to one of my friends about Virat Kohli, and we were discussing the same thing. He was lost, and when he works on his mind, he will perform. When his mind became free, he ruled the T20 World Cup," Akhtar said in chat with Bol News.

Tendulkar was arguably the best batter the world has ever seen; however, he was considered a great captain. In his two tenures as captain, the legendary Indian batter had a miserable win of ratios in both Tests and ODIs of 16% and 31.50%, respectively.

Meanwhile,Meanwhile, unlike his predecessor, Kohli was one of the most celebrated captains of all time. However, he left the captaincy to concentrate more on his batting after a disastrous T20 World Cup 2021 campaign for his side. 

Praising the stature of Kohli - who's going through a rough patch in Test cricket, the Pakistan speedster stated: 

"You also need to look that almost 40 centuries from Kohli came in run chases. Log kehte hain tum Virat (Kohli) ki bohot tareef karte ho, main kehta hu kaise naa karu? (People tell me that you praise Virat Kohli a lot. I just say, Why shouldn't I do that?) During one stage, India used to win because of Virat's hundreds," World's quickest-ever bowler added.

Kohli is currently with the Indian squad, which is playing Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT 2023), where he hasn't done justice to himself. With just 111 runs from five innings, he has yet to play a match-winning knock for India in the ongoing series.

The Rohit Sharma-led unit must win the fourth BGT 2023 Test match to confirm their spot for the World Test Championship (WTC 2023) final. The fixture will be played in Ahmedabad, starting on March 9.