Virat Kohli, reportedly, has communicated his decision to call it a day in Tests to the BCCI following a couple of poor assignments against New Zealand and in Australia. Former India Test captain Rohit Sharma announced his retirement from the format a couple of days ago.
Former India captain Virat Kohli is mulling Test retirement and has reportedly communicated his decision to the BCCI. Kohli, who largely struggled in Australia and didn’t have a good time during the home series against New Zealand, has been having the conversations regarding calling it a day in Tests with the BCCI for the past month or so and has expressed his desire that he is done in the format, as per a report by ESPNCricinfo.
Kohli is expected to be named in the India squad for the five-match Test tour of England and with a new captain yet to be named, the Indian stalwart’s experience will be key in the English conditions, especially after the two-time World Test Championship (WTC) finalists failed to secure their spot in the summit clash for the third time.
As per the Indian Express, the BCCI has urged Kohli to reconsider his decision. Kohli is yet to make anything official and public.
Apart from that second-innings century in Perth, the Indian No 4 didn’t look himself on the rest of the tour, constantly going after the deliveries outside off, sometimes out of habit despite showing patience on several occasions with the team behind, especially in the last two Tests in Melbourne and Sydney. Kohli aggregated 190 on the whole tour, with the second highest score being 36. On the other hand, in New Zealand, Kohli’s tally was 93 runs in six innings, with the best being 70 in Bengaluru. There were as many as four single digits in six innings from Kohli.
With Rohit Sharma retiring from Test cricket a couple of days ago and R Ashwin pulling the curtains down during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Ravindra Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah will be the only two seniors starting the England tour, if Kohli does remain adamant on his call. Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane are not in the scheme of things for the Test side anymore. Mohammed Shami, after return from a long layoff injury, is yet to play a red-ball game; hence, the visitors might lack experience and Kohli’s presence might be crucial.
