Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur has showered praises for the Indian skipper Virat Kohli while adding a little warning to his world-beating ability. Kohli, who has scored 33 ODI centuries and only second to Sachin Tendulkar, has raked numerous records in his career already. No matter the opposition or the venue, if there is one player that can be counted on, it is Virat himself.

Where most of the players trying to avoid run chases and tough asks, Kohli thrives on it and it is proven by the fact that 20 of his 33 centuries have come while chasing the target. Of the 20 centuries, 18 have resulted in an India win.

Kohli’s 100 in the first ODI of the on-going six-match series meant he has now scored a hundred against all nine nations that he has visited. The only nation missing from his list is Pakistan. Even as the skipper has chased incredible records and milestones in his career, Arthur reckons Kohli would not have it easy in Pakistan. He said, “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.”

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India has not played a proper bilateral series against arch-rivals Pakistan since 2007-08 even though Pakistan toured India for a short limited-over series in 2012-13. Since then, because of the political tension, the countries have opted not to play bilateral series with each other despite being penciled in on Future Tours Programme (FTP).

Post the 2009 terrorist attack on Sri Lanka’s team bus, the tours to Pakistan have diminished. Nine years since then, the game is making a progressive return to Pakistan playing in front of their home crowd but hosting a full-fledged series is still a far-fetched proposal. Most recently, Sri Lanka played Tests, ODIs and two T20Is in UAE before moving to Lahore for the third and final T20I.

However, that game was missed by some members of the Sri Lanka squad due to perception over security. Talking about the same, Arthur added, “Hopefully, India will come to play in Pakistan.’