India great Virat Kohli set to call time on Test cricket career before England tour

Virat Kohli is set to deliver another blow to India’s plans for their imminent tour of England by indicating that he wants to retire from Test cricket just days after Rohit Sharma’s decision to stand down, according to reports.

Indian media is reporting that the 36-year-old has told the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) that he no longer wishes to play the longest format of the game. The news comes amid rising tensions border with Pakistan. The Indian Premier League is currently on a one-week pause, while the Pakistan Super League has also been suspended.

India’s selectors now face potentially having to pick a competitive touring party after losing two of their leading players – both former Test captains – when they meet in the coming days before next month’s five-Test series. India are set to face Ben Stokes’s team at Headingley on 20 June and will go on to end the series at the Oval from 31 July. Kohli averages 33.21 in 17 Tests in England with two centuries.

According to reports in India, the Indian cricket board is urging Kohli to row back on his decision. “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,” a source told Indian Express.

Should Kohli not change his mind, India will have to shore up a callow middle order and lean more heavily on the top-order batters KL Rahul, Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal, plus Rishabh Pant at five.

The loss of two experienced and charismatic leaders would certainly trouble India’s selectors. Kohli captained India at Test level from December 2014 until he was succeed by Rohit in February 2022. It is believed Gill, the the vice-captain of the ODI team, is the leading candidate to succeed Rohit.

Kohli’s average has tailed off in the past five years. In 123 Tests for India, he has scored 9,230 runs at an average of 46.85. For India’s last Test series, against Australia, he averaged 23.75 in five Tests and later hinted that his disappointment at his declining performance marked a watershed in his international career. “I might not have an Australia tour again in me in four years’ time,” he said in March.

View image in fullscreen Virat Kohli in action for Royal Challengers Bengaluru last Saturday. Photograph: Aijaz Rahi/AP

“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 ‘OK 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?”

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Kohli retired from T20 internationals following India’s T20 World Cup triumph in West Indies last year but his recent form in the IPL has been impressive, scoring 505 runs in 11 matches, including three fifties, at a strike rate of 143.46 for Royal Challengers Bengaluru. He stands fourth in India’s all-time list of Test run scorers, with 30 centuries and a highest total of 254 not out against South Africa in 2019.

His playing stats aside, Kohli’s loss to the Test side, as a one of the world’s greats, would be keenly felt. His standing in the dressing room earned him the nickname “Captain Fearless”. His record as skipper is unmatched: Kohli’s media profile – he has some 67.8 million followers on X – draws more attention than any other cricketer on the planet. As one of his other nicknames suggests, King Kohli wears the crown.

With Kohli as skipper, India won 40 of those 68 Tests, a winning percentage of 58.82. He led India to their first-ever series win on Australian soil during the 2018 and 2019 tour, leading from the front as an outstanding opener, setting new standards of fitness and competitiveness, and forging India into a Test side to be reckoned with at home and overseas. Last year, he pulled out from the first two of India’s five Tests against England on home soil for personal reasons.

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