Virat Kohli was forced to leave captaincy, says former Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar

Team India will be locking horns with Pakistan in their first match of the tournament on October 23 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) and Shoaib Akhtar feels Pakistan will win again. 

Former Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar has said that he was in Virat Kohli’s place then he would not have married as he would have liked to focus on his cricket. “I do not know what is right, what is wrong. It has all happened, now how to go ahead from here matters. Kohli has the bat, he does not want to be dropped from the team. Performance pressure will be there on him, I wanted him to score 120 tons and not become the captain and I did not want him to get married,” Akhtar told news agency ANI.

“If I was in India and was a fast-bowler, I would not have married. I would have focused on my cricket, this is my thinking. It was Kohli’s personal decision. If you asked me, I would have focused on my cricket,” he added.

Akhtar also stated that Virat Kohli was forced to leave the captaincy of India. Last year, Kohli had stepped down as the T20I captain and then he was removed as the ODI leader as the selectors wanted one skipper for the white-ball format. Kohli then stepped down as India’s Test captain after leading the side for seven years.