Former Pakistani pacer Shoaib Akhtar opined that ace India batter Virat Kohli might retire from the T20I format after the upcoming T20 World Cup 2022 to prolong his career in the other two formats. The mega ICC T20 event will be played in Australia between October 16 to November 13.
The former India captain announced his return to form with his 71st international century and maiden T20I hundred during the Super Fours match against Afghanistan at the Asia Cup 2022. Kohli finished the tournament as the second highest run-getter with 276 runs in five outings with two fifties and one century.
This came after a break of a month as he had struggled for form and runs for the past year and a half.
Sharing his opinion on Kohli’s future in international cricket Akhtar said that the India batter might try to lengthen his career in ODIs and Tests by calling time on his T20I career after the T20 World Cup.
"Kohli might just take retirement after the T20 World Cup. He may do that to extend his longevity in the other formats. If I was him, I would have looked at the larger picture and taken a call," Akhtar said in a live session hosted by India.com.
Virat Kohli had not scored a century since November 2019 and was failing to turn his starts into three-figure scores. He also had a torrid time in the Indian Premier as well, scoring three first-ball ducks in IPL 2022 despite stepping down as RCB captain after the previous season.
However, this statement of Shoaib Akhtar predicting that Virat Kohli might retire from T20Is didn’t sit down well with the Indian cricket fans who trolled him on Twitter.
Here are some of the tweets:
