I told Anushka Sharma that Virat Kohli is making a mistake by being the captain: Shoaib Akhtar

Cricketer-turned-expert Shoaib Akhtar has heaped praises on the India skipper Virat Kohli for bringing a refreshing change to the Indian team. It’s a known fact that the 32-year-old has infused aggression in the side and has created a ruthless mentality, especially in his fast bowlers. Kohli’s never-say-die attitude has changed the Indian team since the time he took leadership in 2014.

Initially, given the Test captaincy Down Under, the right-handed batter in his very first Test as skipper displayed an attitude to go for a win and vouched during several of his interviews about the same. Kohli also backed his fast bowlers to go for the kill and always used to play with five bowlers in a pitch conducive for bowling.

Akhtar shared his thoughts on India’s ever-improving pace attack and the Indian skipper with Sportskeeda, “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.’”

Virat Kohli supports his fast bowlers by being aggressive, reckons Shoaib Akhtar

The former Pakistan fast bowler is more than happy that his assumption on Kohli went out to be wrong and he credited the Indian captain for backing his fast bowlers and instilling a fearless attitude in them. The Indian pace bowlers Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, and Jasprit Bumrah, have always spoken highly of Kohli’s aggressive attitude.

“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 went on to add.