"Had I played against Kohli, he wouldn’t have scored so many runs," says Akhtar

Former Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar has made a bold claim and stated that had he played against Virat Kohli, he would have not been able to accumulate as many runs as he done thus far in his career.

Kohli, who earlier in his career, expressed his desire to have faced Shoaib Akhtar because of his pace. The right-arm batter stated that he likes a challenge and what could have been a better challenge to compete against the world's fastest bowler.

Akhar has remained critical of Virat Kohli's form in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) as of late and he earlier claimed that even big players should be dropped if they don't perform for the team.

This time around, Akhtar said that he would have stopped Kohli from breaking all sorts of scoring records.

"Virat Kohli is a good person and a big cricketer and you only expect big words from big players. And I thank him a lot for that. But, if I would have played against Virat Kohli then he would not have scored these many runs but whatever he would have scored those would have been fabulous and it would look that he really fought hard for those runs," he said while in an interview with an Indian media outlet.

The pacer further claimed that he would have "gotten the best out of Kohli."

"He may not have had 50 centuries. 20 or 25 may at the most but those would have been valiant hundreds. I would have gotten the best out of Virat Kohli."

It is worth mentioning that Kohli and Akhtar shared the field in only one instance which was back in the 2010 Asia Cup. However, Kohli’s early dismissal denied a contest between the competitive individuals.