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Virat Kohli retires from Test cricket

How will history judge Virat Kohli as a Test player?

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dravidthewall

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Legendary India batter Virat Kohli has announced his retirement from Test cricket with immediate effect. The 36-year-old finishes with 9230 runs in 123 Tests at an average of 46.85, which includes 30 centuries.


Kohli's decision to step away from Test cricket comes close on the heels of the retirements of Rohit Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin, signalling a full-scale transition that Indian cricket hasn't witnessed since the exits of Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman in 2012, and later Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag.
 
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Great player.

It will be odd to see the Indian Test team without Rohit, Ashwin, and Kohli. I am guessing Jadeja will also retire within a few years.
 
His high points, his overseas knocks and his record as captain were just tremendous
 
Well I really liked to passion he has for the real format of cricket. He always respected and talked in great words about this format.
It's actually sad the selectors didn't let him continue for one more home season and let him finish on the low of that aussie tour.

He has easely been the best Asian batsman in test cricker to start after 2010.
 
Farewell Champ.

After Ganguly, Virat bhai was the only captain who said we needed to back pacers and he did that and built our test pace attack. Honestly it’s gone down since they took against from him.

Virat is the reason Ishant resurrected his test career , he’s the reason Umesh Yadav played so much test cricket.

Varun Aaron also was backed by him but he had injury issues.

If Virat was captain im sure Umran Malik would have been utilized a lot better.

Thank you for instilling aggression in our cricket.

At his peak he was the best test batter in the world. The decline really wrecked his record and overall stature. Peak Virat was a phenomenal batter everywhere in the world.
 
Sitting duck recently Aussie bowlers were literally telling him where they were going to pitch the ball to get him out.
 
Virat Kohli retired from Test cricket with a legacy that can't be measured in numbers.

Not just a great batter. A relentless leader. A generational mindset.

He made fitness non-negotiable, pace a priority, and made India believe it could win anywhere.

:kp
 
Devadwal said:
Virat Kohli retired from Test cricket with a legacy that can't be measured in numbers.

Not just a great batter. A relentless leader. A generational mindset.

He made fitness non-negotiable, pace a priority, and made India believe it could win anywhere.

:kp
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According to you, he is one of the top 10 greats of the game, I mean not just in India, but globally? With a Test average of just 46? :inti
 
Rana said:
It’s odd he retires at this time.

Is it a ploy to divert attention from Indian Government and Armed forces humiliation at border?
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I don't think so. This is the right time for him to retire, especially with bigger issues currently dominating the country's attention. Otherwise, his career would have come under scrutiny, sparking long debates about his status as a Test player. Now, he can quietly step away from Test cricket without much noise and by the time people notice, a couple of months will have already passed. :vk :inti
 
A Great player. He changed the work ethic and Mentality in Indian cricket for their betterment for what they are today.

Remember his battle with Jimmy Anderson in England a few years back, was epic. The guy put xxms on seats.
Will be missed in Tests.
 
An outstanding Test captain for India who changed the way they played the game and evolved their pysche, an average Test batsman who had a great peak.

Overall, a hugely influential figure for Indian cricket and should be proud of the impact that he is had. ODI retirement beckons after next year’s World Cup, and that will be a much bigger story given his legacy in that format.
 
Phenomenal player. His work ethic and discipline is unparalleled in Asian cricket.
He did not posses raw talent or natural ability like some of his peers but he made up by his discipline, hard work and commitment.


People will remember his last 4 years in test cricket but will forget how great he was before that.

One of the few players who practiced hard to overcome the flaws in his game before age caught him.

Farwell legend!
 
Devadwal said:
Virat Kohli retired from Test cricket with a legacy that can't be measured in numbers.

Not just a great batter. A relentless leader. A generational mindset.

He made fitness non-negotiable, pace a priority, and made India believe it could win anywhere.

:kp
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Virat Kohli retired from Test cricket with a legacy that can't be measured in numbers.

Basically another way to say, hes avg in test but im a fanboy so i will call him immeasurable 🤣
 
Anyway, Kohli was an outstanding Test captain and he's a solid test player that most 11's would want.

At his peak he was essentially in the league of lara and ponting as Test batters but he eventually fizzled out.

Sadly he's a batter who couldn't finish his test career of with a 50+ avg and 10K runs but he's still a player who deserves respect for all he's achieved in test cricket.
 
Should have finished with 50+ avg and indian dust bowls are to blamed to a bit as well. For such a fit guy he did lose a bit of reflexes quite early. I think that's genetics and he maximized what he had. Mad respect for that!

His test captaincy stint was the best time for India. Should have finished those 2 closely fought SA series on the winning side but at the end of the day it's a team game. Thorough professional and brought the fitness culture and set the bar really high for Indian cricketers.

He made the tests watchable again on TV and made us fall in love with test cricket. I am not gonna judge him with that average. One of the best ever cricketers in the whites.
 
Rana said:
It’s odd he retires at this time.

Is it a ploy to divert attention from Indian Government and Armed forces humiliation at border?
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Oh bhai bas kar ja 😅
Full on emotionally charge ho rakha hai
 
Nothing from the selected options. Good test player who had an amazing peak of 5 years
 
During his peak he had the potential to surpass Tendulkar and Gavaskar.

However his shocking post-COVID dropoff, averaging 30 in his last 39 Tests since Jan 2020, means he falls well short of them.

It's a more difficult batting era with this new Kookaburra and spicier pitches, but he became a liability and the Indian selectors should've moved on 1-2 years ago. No other Indian batsman would've gotten such an extended run but seniority is everything in desi societies.

That said he was never dull to watch and his captaincy was transformative, giving a higher value to pace than perhaps any other Indian Test skipper.
 
Thank you champ. You have done so much for Indian cricket. Time for new players to shine. I hope he will become a commentator with his sharp wit.
 
May not be among the greatest players in whites but a very very good and perhaps a great test player whose stats are slightly underwhelming for the calibre of the player he was.

Kohli played in an era where pitched especially those featuring Indian team were conducive to bowling friendly, which is why he still deserves the appreciation as a test cricketer.

A fantastic test captain as well who focused purely on winning test matches by playing aggressive brand of cricket. I felt he could have done slightly better as a captain in a few overseas close encounters which turned into losses.

All in all, a great test player and will be remembered in history of test cricket.
 
Let's be real

He was not a great test player. His stats are almost similar to VVS Laxman and Azhar Ali and his average fell very badly. He could have manned up and carried on for another 2-3 years given India's abscence of experience in the test side. He ran way from the challenge of playing against the English Duke Ball.

Find it sickening to see our Pakistani players current and ex paying tributes to him given the amount of war mongering the present and ex indian players were indulging in. The players need to understand that their social media, youtube accounts have been blocked in India, there is no point now in buttering up to the Indian audience anymore. Have some self respect.
 
big_gamer007 said:
Phenomenal player. His work ethic and discipline is unparalleled in Asian cricket.
He did not posses raw talent or natural ability like some of his peers but he made up by his discipline, hard work and commitment.


People will remember his last 4 years in test cricket but will forget how great he was before that.

One of the few players who practiced hard to overcome the flaws in his game before age caught him.

Farwell legend!
Click to expand...
Savak said:
Let's be real

He was not a great test player. His stats are almost similar to VVS Laxman and Azhar Ali and his average fell very badly. He could have manned up and carried on for another 2-3 years given India's abscence of experience in the test side. He ran way from the challenge of playing against the English Duke Ball.

Find it sickening to see our Pakistani players current and ex paying tributes to him given the amount of war mongering the present and ex indian players were indulging in. The players need to understand that their social media, youtube accounts have been blocked in India, there is no point now in buttering up to the Indian audience anymore. Have some self respect.
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This
 
alright test player not level of smith,root or williamson but he had disadvantage being born in non-seamy conditions despite that he did alright in sena. His turnaround from 2014 eng tour to 2018 tour was something.
 
He's had a career to be proud of as captain and player, despite the lows.

Alot of people have already talked about his incredible batting peak, so I'm not gonna waste time talking about that. But I think he has a genuine case as India's best ever captain.

After the Dhoni era India's credibility as a test side was under question because of the typical template of dominating at home and getting mauled every time they went to SENA. Kohli changed that. Not only did he make India competitive in SENA but he also became the first Asian captain to beat Australia in Australia, drew against England in England (in a series they very easily could have won had BCCI not postponed) and came incredibly close to beating South Africa in South Africa.

On top of that, he led India to one of their most dominant runs at home that did not end till he was captain. Perhaps, even more importantly, it was under his captaincy that India went from having one of the worst and most toothless fast-bowling attacks in the world, to one of the very best.
 
According to the news in the market, Kohli felt insulted by the manner BCCI snatched the ODI captaincy from him and the wound hasn't healed.

He also felt insulted that players who were not fit to shine his shoes like Ajit Agarkar were telling him that he was being given a final chance in the England series and should take his call on his test future after that.
 
Does India really need him in ODI Cricket given the white ball talent that is available? I thought the whole purpose of him retiring from T-20 cricket was so that he could maximize his ODI and Test Career. By retiring from test cricket, how is he going to ensure he has enough batting time?
 
Savak said:
Does India really need him in ODI Cricket given the white ball talent that is available? I thought the whole purpose of him retiring from T-20 cricket was so that he could maximize his ODI and Test Career. By retiring from test cricket, how is he going to ensure he has enough batting time?
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This is not a forced retirement. He was going to be dropped so he retired. Otherwise he was so commited to play test cricket for another 3-4 years.
 
Mobashir said:
This is not a forced retirement. He was going to be dropped so he retired. Otherwise he was so commited to play test cricket for another 3-4 years.
Click to expand...

To be fair, he had been playing on reputation for so long. Any other player whose average had dropped from 55 to 46 in the last 4 years, he would have been dropped ages ago.
 
It is fairly obvious what happened here.

GG made it clear to the selectors that he doesn’t want to carry two washed veterans to England where both will fail just like they did in Australia, and have another series defeat on his head.

GG himself is under pressure given India’s pathetic record in Test cricket under his coaching.

Both Rohit and Kohli cannot afford the embarrassment of being axed from the squad. They were left with no choice but to retire.
 
Vastly overrated really, his LOI feats were more to do with the 2 new ball rule and batting friendly conditions then anything else, we’ve seen that he was always a sitting duck in testing conditions for the most part, all around the world pitches started to flatten out and he benefited from the era he played in, for flat pitches he was a special player, but besides that, average really. We saw how a past it Amir pulled his pants down in a high profile final, so much for his great record against Pak. Any team on their day can win a WT20 trophy, but during his peak, he failed India during multiple 50 Over WC campaigns, they have like one trophy to account for during their so called dominance.

In Tests the less said the better, you can never dare to be considered alongside the greatest by not doing well in this format, his technical deficiencies were exposed spectacularly and again, he failed India in the WTC finals; people kept moving goal posts to make excuses for him and give him as much time to succeed but Kohli keeps quitting due to his small heart
 
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Kohli the Test Batsman was alot different than Kohli the ODI chase specialist , nonetheless enjoy your retirement
 
Good riddance. :inti

Gentleman's game has been ruined by clowns like Kohli. Who can forget his unnecessary bump with Konstas? That was cowardly.

Hopefully he will retire from LOI soon also.
 
Savak said:
Let's be real

He was not a great test player. His stats are almost similar to VVS Laxman and Azhar Ali and his average fell very badly. He could have manned up and carried on for another 2-3 years given India's abscence of experience in the test side. He ran way from the challenge of playing against the English Duke Ball.

Find it sickening to see our Pakistani players current and ex paying tributes to him given the amount of war mongering the present and ex indian players were indulging in. The players need to understand that their social media, youtube accounts have been blocked in India, there is no point now in buttering up to the Indian audience anymore. Have some self respect.
Click to expand...
Your entire cricketing genration didn't have virat Kohli level cricketer accross the formats. Pakistan is currently at minnows level in all formats. :kp
 
Savak said:
According to the news in the market, Kohli felt insulted by the manner BCCI snatched the ODI captaincy from him and the wound hasn't healed.

He also felt insulted that players who were not fit to shine his shoes like Ajit Agarkar were telling him that he was being given a final chance in the England series and should take his call on his test future after that.
Click to expand...
Nobody has a right to play for their nation. Its a privilege. Ind offered Kohli that. Ind owes him nothing, its the other way round. These SC star tantrums need to be thrown out. Others being babar azam, shakib etc etc . Kohli was a very poor test player last 5 years.. No otehr batter would get that many chances , so he he's luck to be there. A selector has to do his job, he doesnt have to be the best player just like a chance. Good riddance Kohli , esp the last few test and T20 years. Plenty of younger batters available to take his place.
 
Devadwal said:
Your entire cricketing genration didn't have virat Kohli level cricketer accross the formats. Pakistan is currently at minnows level in all formats. :kp
Click to expand...

We are talking about Kohli here. Not Pakistani cricketers
 
Seems like Kohli felt insulted by BCCI and/or selectors. If he wanted to retire he wouldn't have played Ranji Trophy, he would have retired after the last Australia test. Seems fairly obvious that he and Rohit were given an ultimatum by selectors and the board.

Asian cricketers always have the worst retirements. Especially Pak and Indian cricketers.
 
Forced hand.

Better to retire than be dropped.

One of the ODI legends.

In Tests I remember more iconic knocks even by Younis Khan or VVS than him.

Average test batsmen but a proactive Test Captain that might have changed Indias approach away from home forever.

For that only, he deserves a standing ovation.
 
It was a pretty sudden decision TBH. Not sure why he did not retire after the Australia series. It would have been a good time to retire and get a farewell that he deserves also... Something is not right between him and other stakeholders in BCCI.
 
deltexas said:
Nobody has a right to play for their nation. Its a privilege. Plenty of younger batters available to take his place.
Click to expand...
Both kohli and rohit should be thrown out from odis too.Rohit shamelessly proclaimed in a recent interview that quick fire 35 from 20 balls is sufficient or at some best days 80 will be great. Don't understand the logic at all .he is a opener not a pinch hitter.cant jaiswal do it better than him?Sai is much more adept than kohli at handling spin and rotation of strike.
 
BouncerGuy said:
It was a pretty sudden decision TBH. Not sure why he did not retire after the Australia series. It would have been a good time to retire and get a farewell that he deserves also... Something is not right between him and other stakeholders in BCCI.
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Naw, he originally wanted to retire right their and then but BCCI was pressuring him to play England test series however kphli decided not to. But it took him a while to decide.
 
RedwoodOriginal said:
Seems like Kohli felt insulted by BCCI and/or selectors. If he wanted to retire he wouldn't have played Ranji Trophy, he would have retired after the last Australia test. Seems fairly obvious that he and Rohit were given an ultimatum by selectors and the board.

Asian cricketers always have the worst retirements. Especially Pak and Indian cricketers.
Click to expand...
He absolutely detested BCCI's no family rule for foreign tours except for a few days. Really weak of him if this is true.
 
Vikram1989 said:
Both kohli and rohit should be thrown out from odis too.Rohit shamelessly proclaimed in a recent interview that quick fire 35 from 20 balls is sufficient or at some best days 80 will be great. Don't understand the logic at all .he is a opener not a pinch hitter.cant jaiswal do it better than him?Sai is much more adept than kohli at handling spin and rotation of strike.
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I agree with this. These 2 are not needed in ODIs too. Should be booted out as soon as possible especially considering that ODIs are played far and few and we need to prepare a team for next ODI WC.
 
Posted this in another thread,

Had Kohli retired a year or 2 earlier or at least hinted BCCI about his intentions of quitting tests, we could have at least groomed his replacement against lesser opponents or in home conditions.

Now after selfishly retiring just before the England tour which is a baptism with fire for any batsman, let alone a debutant/young upcoming batsman, Kohli has only proved how selfish he has been.
 
Kohli could have been India's greatest batter. Sadly he lost the drive for excellence in what should have been his peak years in his 30's. He didn't have the same focus on his game that he did in his twenties.
 
1747111893491.png

Lol, Sidhu calls him greatest ever Indian cricketer. Sidhu and his hyperboles.
 
MP2011 said:
Posted this in another thread,

Had Kohli retired a year or 2 earlier or at least hinted BCCI about his intentions of quitting tests, we could have at least groomed his replacement against lesser opponents or in home conditions.

Now after selfishly retiring just before the England tour which is a baptism with fire for any batsman, let alone a debutant/young upcoming batsman, Kohli has only proved how selfish he has been.
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Both seniors are quite selfish and they dont care about team.They proved it by retiring from test matches where they can't score but stayed in odis to stat pad.i hope jaiswal and sai will be successful in eng matches he's and outs both of them for good in odis.
 
This is what Kohli's childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma has to say about Kohli's retirement,

"He has set an example by walking out on a high. We have often seen that our cricketers do not have a good retirement but this is a retirement that everyone wants. You have a lot of cricket left and could have played. So, this has always been Virat's style," Sharma said.

lol, is he for real?
 
shaz619 said:
Vastly overrated really, his LOI feats were more to do with the 2 new ball rule and batting friendly conditions then anything else, we’ve seen that he was always a sitting duck in testing conditions for the most part, all around the world pitches started to flatten out and he benefited from the era he played in, for flat pitches he was a special player, but besides that, average really. We saw how a past it Amir pulled his pants down in a high profile final, so much for his great record against Pak. Any team on their day can win a WT20 trophy, but during his peak, he failed India during multiple 50 Over WC campaigns, they have like one trophy to account for during their so called dominance.

In Tests the less said the better, you can never dare to be considered alongside the greatest by not doing well in this format, his technical deficiencies were exposed spectacularly and again, he failed India in the WTC finals; people kept moving goal posts to make excuses for him and give him as much time to succeed but Kohli keeps quitting due to his small heart
Click to expand...
He has won more ICC tournaments than your whole country, i think that itself explains who inherits cheap Dna.

Kohli has more fans in Pakistan than Younis Khan, yk won’t even be a footnote in cricket history, Kohli will have a whole chapter to his name.
 
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MP2011 said:
This is what Kohli's childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma has to say about Kohli's retirement,

"He has set an example by walking out on a high. We have often seen that our cricketers do not have a good retirement but this is a retirement that everyone wants. You have a lot of cricket left and could have played. So, this has always been Virat's style," Sharma said.

lol, is he for real?
Click to expand...
Yeah he won the champions trophy and was our best batter there?
 
Mobashir said:
Well I really liked to passion he has for the real format of cricket. He always respected and talked in great words about this format.
It's actually sad the selectors didn't let him continue for one more home season and let him finish on the low of that aussie tour.

He has easely been the best Asian batsman in test cricker to start after 2010.
Click to expand...
I think England tour could have been a disaster for him given his issues with 5th stump line outside off
 
Thank you Kohli for entertaining us.

Kohli was more effective in ODIs and T20s.
 
Kohli wasn't as naturally talented as say a Tendulkar or a Lara. But he made more than optimum use of his talent by his sheer hard work and determination.

Rohit as our test skipper was such a downgrade over Kohli, the test skipper.
 
jeeteshssaxena said:
He has won more ICC tournaments than your whole country, i think that itself explains who inherits cheap Dna.

Kohli has more fans in Pakistan than Younis Khan, yk won’t even be a footnote in cricket history, Kohli will have a whole chapter to his name.

The countless spanking that he bestowed on you and your bloodline can be made into an epic tale.
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Why so toxic? Kohli fanboys smh.

He's not > Every Pakistani cricketers ever in test. Only in odi and t20.
 
dravidthewall said:
Legendary India batter Virat Kohli has announced his retirement from Test cricket with immediate effect. The 36-year-old finishes with 9230 runs in 123 Tests at an average of 46.85, which includes 30 centuries.


Kohli's decision to step away from Test cricket comes close on the heels of the retirements of Rohit Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin, signalling a full-scale transition that Indian cricket hasn't witnessed since the exits of Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman in 2012, and later Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag.
Click to expand...
both him and Rohit made these announcements in the wake of humiliation of the india media in front of their people.

I bet this was asked by the BCCI and indian government
 
jeeteshssaxena said:
He has won more ICC tournaments than your whole country, i think that itself explains who inherits cheap Dna.

Kohli has more fans in Pakistan than Younis Khan, yk won’t even be a footnote in cricket history, Kohli will have a whole chapter to his name.

The countless spanking that he bestowed on you and your bloodline can be made into an epic tale.
Click to expand...
yet after all this, indians will never forget this

 
shaz619 said:
Your entire cowardly ancestry with their cheap DNA literally got dealt with, you couldn’t refute a single point there and got triggered by the truth, the low grade sub-human insect are only good for scams, begging for UK visa and screaming online because that’s the ceiling for the vegetable aggression. Kohli is just another okayish player before the world, even his own bakht followers have turned on him, in the UK we just see Kohli as an insecure screaming kutha, this is literally the assessment in the BBC forums following the announcement of him throwing in the towel because he knew he would get his y-fronts pulled down in England once again, cowards, get dealt with when the going gets tough.
Click to expand...
I heard they also scream "WHY DID YOU REDEEM IT" a lot
 
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