TIL Desk Sports/ Legendary Pakistan fast bowler Wasim Akram is also in the awe of India’s run machine Virat Kohli. The Sultan of Swing, who has taken more than 400 wickets in Tests and ODIs, said that he would have been worried to bowl at Kohli. “Belief, his ability and on top of that his technique. We haven’t seen him play the reverse shot or the lap shot, he always plays proper cricketing shots with the full face of the bat.
“That’s why he has been very consistent and as a bowler if I had to bowl at him, I will be worried. It’s like in ODI cricket when Sachin Tendulkar opened the innings, it was very difficult to bowl at him because Sachin as a batsman and Kohli as a batsman will hardly give you a chance to get them out,” Akram told .
“Kohli has scored 36 sixes in this IPL … they are lot of sixes. In my cricketing career, I have 50 plus sixes and those days sixes were rare. So, you can imagine he is powerful, he is strong and he can hit the ball miles outside the stadium. He has been a treat to watch,” he added. Kohli in his recent interview had praised Akram saying the Pakistan quick would’ve been the only bowler; he wouldn’t have liked to face.
“The bowler I most fear, or I would have feared if I had played [against him] would be Wasim Akram; fast and skillful,” Kohli had told. Kohli has been in phenomenal form in IPL 9 amassing 919 runs at a staggering strike-rate of over 151, which has played a crucial role in taking his side Royal Challengers Bangalore into the final.
