After Rohit Sharma retired from Test cricket, Virat Kohli too seems to be wanting to call it a day in the longest format and he has conveyed his message regarding his retirement to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
As per an Indian Express report on Saturday, BCCI has told Kohli to rethink about his decision as a crucial tour to England is nearing where India play five Test matches in England.
“He has made up his mind and has informed the board that he is moving on from Test cricket. The BCCI has urged him to rethink as the crucial England tour is coming up. He is yet to revert on the request,” the newspaper reported citing anonymous sources.
The report comes just days after Test skipper Rohit announced his retirement from red ball cricket after a lean run of form. Kohli too has been in terrible touch for a long time now in Test cricket and could not do much in the recent Border-Gavaskar series despite scoring a century in the opening game.
Since 2020, Virat Kohli averages just over 30 and in the recent Australia tour he could only score at an average of 23.75 across five Tests. The star batter consistently got out in similar fashion trying to fish balls outside the off-stump.
Speaking at a Royal Challengers Bengaluru event ahead of the IPL 2025, Kohli had talked about the mental pressures after the recent Test failures.
“Once you start taking on the energy and the disappointment from the outside, then you start burdening yourself way more… And then you start thinking about things, like ‘I’ve got two or three days left on this tour, I need to make an impact now’. And you start getting more desperate. That’s something I’ve surely experienced in Australia as well.”
“Because I got a good score in the first Test. I thought, ‘right, let’s go’. There’s going to be another big series for me. It doesn’t turn out that way. For me, it’s just about the acceptance of ‘okay fine, this is what happened. I’m going to be honest with myself. Where do I want to go? What are my energy levels like’.”
Having already retired from T20Is, Kohli, just like Rohit, will only be left playing ODIs if BCCI can not convince him to play more Tests.
