Virat Kohli is fantastic, but will find it hard to score century on Pakistan soil, claims Mickey Arthur

02/07/2018

Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur believes that despite Virat Kohli enjoying good form, the Indian skipper will not score a century easily in Pakistan. He was also optimistic regarding the bilateral series between India and Pakistan and hoped Team India would visit Pakistan soon to play cricket.

In the ongoing series between India and South Africa, Kohli has continued his brilliant form from the last year. The team managed to end the three-match Test series with a win in the last game after losing the first two. The win seemed to motivate the side as they quickly took a 2-0 lead in the six-match ODI series as they started the 50-over campaign with a bang. Kohli scored his 33rd century in Durban and with that, he joined the club of Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya who scored a century in nine out of ten full-member nations. Tendulkar didn’t score a century in West Indies and Jayasuriya was not able to score a hundred in Zimbabwe. Pakistan is the only country missing from the Indian skipper’s list who scored his 20th century while batting in the second innings.

The South Africa-born Arthur claimed that if Kohli comes to play in Pakistan in future, he would find hard to score runs considering their bowling attack.

“Kohli is a fantastic player but our team will make it hard (for him) to score a century there (Pakistan). It has been a great pleasure to watch Kohli scoring against all teams and it is always enjoyable to watch his batting. However, our bowlers will not make it easy for him to score there”, he told Times Now.

A terrorist attack on Sri Lanka cricket team in 2009 resulted in Pakistan’s exclusion from the cricket world as many teams denied to visit the country citing security reasons which forced the Pakistan cricket team to play their matches at a neutral venue.

The relationship between India and Pakistan has also not been very good and considering the political tensions between the two countries.

“Hopefully, India will come to play in Pakistan”, he added.