Former Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar lauded Virat Kohli for his captaincy with the Indian cricket team. Akhtar said Kohli has done an outstanding job as a captain after former India skipper MS Dhoni passed the responsibility to him.

However, Akhtar was not in favor of Kohli getting the captaincy, as the role comes with a lot of pressure in a cricket crazy country like India. He recalled his words to Kohli's wife and Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma during a show.

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In an interaction with Sportskeeda, Akhtar said, “I think Virat (Kohli) has done a wonderful job as a captain. I said it to Anushka Sharma in a Sony show- ‘I think Virat is making a mistake by being a captain. I knew there was a tremendous amount of pressure on him and, it would bog him down.'”

“In a country like India with a population of a billion, there are around 20,000 TV sets and channels, enough to slam him. In my mind, I was thinking, ‘he’s a young kid, let him score runs and play his game.’”

Kohli handled the pressure very well and along with his batting form, he managed to lead the Indian cricket team to some memorable wins. Akhtar is happy to be proven wrong.

The ex-Pakistan cricketer credited Kohli for building a strong Indian bowling attack who bowl fearlessly. “He [Kohli] took up that challenge of being a skipper. He took it on and made sure that his replica was instilled within the fast bowlers. He wants to see his aggression in his fast bowlers. He’s not a Virat Kohli on the field, he is a fast bowler running in the form of an Ishant Sharma or a Bhuvneshwar Kumar or [Mohammed] Shami,” Akhtar added. 

(With SportsKeeda Inputs)