New Delhi, India

Legendary Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar lauded Virat Kohli after his fabulous knock against the Men in Green in the T20 World Cup 2022 on Sunday. Kohli scored a match-winning unbeaten 82 as India clinched a thrilling four-wicket win against their arch-rivals to get off to a flying start in the tournament.

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India were in a spot of bother at one stage in the tricky 160-run chase as they found themselves reeling at 31/4 inside just seven overs. However, Kohli then took charge and combined with Hardik Pandya to take the game down the wire before slaughtering the Pakistan bowlers in the death overs.

Kohli helped India chase down 48 runs off the last three overs to register one of their most memorable wins against Pakistan in recent times and truly announce his comeback after a prolonged lean patch earlier this year. Akhtar hailed Kohli as one of the greatest of all time and labeled his knock as the best of his career so far.

 "According to me, he played the greatest innings of his life against Pakistan. He played like this because he had the self-belief that he will do it," Akhtar said in a video on his YouTube channel.

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The former Pakistan pacer, who has been an avid supporter of the senior India batter, had backed him continuously during his rough patch. Akhtar said the game against Pakistan was the perfect one for Kohli to announce his comeback and he did that in stellar fashion with a memorable knock.

"He was down and out for 3 years, he didn’t score runs, he was stripped of his captaincy and a lot of people said a lot of things to him. People even dragged his family into it but he kept training and put in the graft and just a day before Diwali, he played a firecracker on an innings. He decided that this place and this stage is perfect for his comeback. The king is back and he is back with a bang and I am really happy for him. He is a great cricketer," said Akhtar.

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The Pakistan great then went on to urge the senior India batter to consider retiring from the shortest format arguing that he can score many more centuries if he concentrates on ODIs. Akhtar said Kohli could have scored three centuries in ODIs with half of the effort that he put into his 82-run-knock against Pakistan on Sunday.

"I want him to retire from T20I because I don’t want that he puts his entire energy in T20I cricket. If he used all his might like he did today, he can score three centuries in ODIs," said Akhtar.

Kohli was struggling with his form and was also dealing with significant mental pressure due to his poor performance just a few months back. However, the Indian superstar put his head down and worked hard to script a fairytale comeback and redeem himself at the grandest stage of them all.

He will be looking to continue his purple patch with the willow when India take on Netherlands in their next Super 12 clash on Thursday.