EXCLUSIVE | Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma should visit Pakistan before retirement, says Kamran Akmal | Parami News

The batting masters of India, namely, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, are amongst the most sought after cricketers spinning around in recent times. Both are quite popular across the globe, including Pakistan, where they have never played a single international match, because of their herculean efforts to win matches and thus impact the final outcome.

Pakistan is still one of those countries where no match was held as far as the stunning batting of Virat and Rohit is concerned. It is noteworthy however that Virat did visit Pakistan once in his under 19 days but has not been able to set his foot there with the senior side.

Among many, one of them is the former Pakistan wicketkeeper-batsman Kamran Akmal who perceives that injection of these two exceptional talents in the International arena who have already bid farewell to T20Is, would be Pakistan before quitting the format forever.

This year giansing, India emerged victorious of the T20 World Cup and consequently, the Indian T20 batting pair opted to retire on the international stage from that format.

“Virat and Rohit should see Pakistan at the earliest before they hang their boots,” Akmal said in an exclusive interview with Timesofindia.com. “These two are the stars of world cricket who have to travel around the world to play their game. They are loved by every single fan, that it is, these two have gone beyond disasters of a massive fan base with their batting and match-winning performance.”

“The fan following they will encounter in Pakistan will exceed anything they’ve ever encountered before.”

The last confrontation between India and Pakistan was in the year 2012-13 in the international format up until the present. Forty-five Test matches since then, and two teams only played in the contests that ever included more than two nations: the Asia Cup and ICC tournaments. And roasting India-Pakistan fans are begin to desire for the revival of these contests as the later have very few such series these days.

“Virat is an idol and a big name to a lot of people, Rohit is the man who has led India to World Cup glory, and Bumrah is the number 1 fast bowler at the moment. There will be different kind of affection towards them from every fan when these players such as Virat, Rohit and Bumrah go to Pakistan. Virat has already been to pakistan during his under 19 days but he was not that popular then,” Akmal said.

“Just a visit in Pakistan now will prove the extent of his popularity here. He will also get different support in Pakistan. No cricketer is as famous as Virat in Pakistan, he is even more popular than any international cricketer anywhere in the world. Among the Pakistani fans, virat, rohit and bumrah are the most adored players than majority of their home team players,” said the former wicketkeeper.

Both Virat and Rohit will be seen in the field in the next two-match Test series against Bangladesh.

The first Test will be played on September 19 in Chennai and the second a week later on September 27 at Green Park Kanpur.