“As a cricketer, I would advise Kohli to stop playing T20I and just focus on ODIs and Tests. He is an exciting player in the middle and I think, T20Is take a lot of energy and he needs to save it now. If he does so, he’s just 34 and can easily play 6-8 years from now. Even if, from now on, he plays 50 Tests he can easily hit 25 hundreds,” Akhtar told Sports Tak.

Kohli finally ended a nearly 40-month wait for his 28th Test hundred as his scrappy but brilliantly effective 186 set up a gripping final day of the fourth Test against Australia in Ahmedabad.

Advising Virat to concentrate on his game, he said,”Kohli should continue playing and should stop hearing the criticism he faces quite often. Both Virat and Babar are great players from our continent.”

Virat has 75 international centuries already under his belt and he is second to Sachin Tendulkar’s 100 hundreds. With the next 50-over World Cup being hosted by India in 2023, a lot will be expected of Kohli and hopefully, he will inch closer to breaking this record.

On September 8, 2022, during the Asia Cup 2022 match against Afghanistan, Virat ended his century drought of 1,021 days in international cricket as well. He had smashed 122* off 61 balls. His last international ton before that had come in November 2019, in a Test match against Bangladesh.

He followed it by breaking his ODI century drought on December 10 2022 during 3rd ODI against Bangladesh. He scored 113 in 91 balls to end his ODI ton drought of 1,116 days. Before it, his last ODI ton was against West Indies in August 2019.