The former cricketer of Pakistan, Shoaib Akhtar has advised the head coach and team selector of Pakistan, Misbah-ul-Haq and the skipper Azhar Ali to follow Virat Kohli. Akhtar said that the two should watch and learn from the India skipper and bring back the once-aggressive side of Pakistan.
On Monday, Ali & Co. has won the recently-concluded two-match Test series against Sri Lanka where they defeated the visitors in the second match by 263 runs. The first match, whereas, was drawn as that Test faced a bad weather disturbance. After Sarfaraz Ahmad’s dismissal from the team as well as the captain, that was the first victorious Test series for Pakistan.
The batting squad of Pakistan presented an intense game with their bat, especially in the second innings of the second Test. After the disappointing first innings, Pakistan cricketers studded the second gig with not just one or two but four centuries. Meanwhile, Abid Ali neared his maiden double century but was taken down by Lahiru Kumara at 174 runs.
Abid Ali, who received both Player of the Match and Player of the Series, also bagged a century from the washed-out first Test match. Whereas, Babar Azam who scored a total of 262 runs in the Test series against Sri Lanka, achieved his career-best rank of sixth in the latest ICC Test rankings.
Akhtar remembers Imran Khan’s captaincy, advises Misbah and Ali to follow Kohli
It was a decade ago when Pakistan had won a Test series at home, while India is set on a winning pace and has won many Test games played so far. Referring to the winning streak of India, the former speedster of Pakistan, Shoaib Akhtar advised Ali and his team to watch and learn from Virat Kohli and evolve their game.
Kohli is presently the most successful captain in the Test format of cricket in the world.
“I have seen India team evolve. Pakistan had a forte of playing aggressive cricket, we did not use to be timid. We used to be aggressive and be up for the fight. Let’s compare our skipper to India’s skipper. Both Misbah and Azhar should come up with ways to make Pakistan’s team better. The roadmap should be to get better than Virat Kohli’s side,” Akhtar, said on his official YouTube channel.
The 44-years-old Rawalpindi Express mentioned the former Pakistan skipper Imran Khan who is at present the Prime Minister of the nation. He said that even though Imran wasn’t a very “tactical cricketer” he knew how to gather match-winners in his team and that is what the Indian skipper is doing at present.
“Imran Khan was not a tactical captain, but he knew how to gather match-winners. Now India is doing the same, see Kohli’s attitude,” the ex-speedster said.
Furthermore, Akhtar said that everyone in the team looks up to their captain, so he needs to be physically fit and encourage his mates to be the same. The ex-cricketer and now the YouTube sensation exclaimed that both Ali and Misbah should bring back the agility in the team and follow Kohli’s mantra for winning more international games.
“(Virat) Kohli is a fitness freak and his team completely looks up to him. If the captain is agile and sets such standards, the side will obviously follow. I believe this thing used to be there in our side when Imran Khan was the captain. He came to the ground, did not listen to anyone, used to run ten laps around, take 20-25 sprints. He then bowled in the nets for three hours. It was compulsory for the rest of the players to come and do the same,” Akhtar said.
Both Pakistan and Sri Lanka have 80 points from four games but Pakistan is ranked higher because of better runs per wicket ratio. India and Australia are leading the top two spots of the table with 360 and 216 points, respectively.