Former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar, who is now a commentator, has expressed grief and disappointment at Virat Kohli’s decision to retire from Test cricket. Manjrekar said that rather than ending his red-ball career early, the former India captain could have put in more effort to find his form again.
Manjrekar stated that Kohli’s absence from the longest format is much more painful at a time when contemporaries like Root, Steve Smith, and Kane Williamson are solidifying their legacies amid Joe Root’s ongoing ascent in Test cricket. He said that Kohli’s retirement was all the more regrettable because of his protracted batting struggles in Test cricket during the latter part of his career.
“Well, as Joe Root attains new heights in Test cricket, my mind goes to Virat Kohli. He’s walked away from Test cricket, and it’s unfortunate that in the five years that he struggled before retiring, he didn’t quite put his heart and soul into finding out the problems as to why he was averaging 31 for five years in Test cricket. But I just feel sad that people like Joe Root, Steve Smith and Kane Williamson are really making a name for themselves in Test cricket,” Manjrekar said in a video shared on his Instagram handle.
He said that in order to make his way back through domestic and international first-class cricket, Kohli might have looked into making technical and mental modifications or even accepted being momentarily left out.
Manjrekar also acknowledged that he was more dissatisfied with Kohli’s choice to play one-day internationals even after he had retired from Test cricket. He maintained that Test cricket is still the best test of skill, temperament, and tenacity and classified ODIs as the simplest format for a top-order batsman.
“It was OK if Virat Kohli had just walked away from cricket, retired from all formats. But that he’s chosen to play one-day cricket actually disappoints me more because this is a format which, for a top-order batter, I’ve said before as well, is the easiest format. The format that really tests you is first, obviously, Test cricket, and T20 cricket has its different challenges,” he added.
“The other thing is, because he’s so fit, supremely fit, you feel even more that he could have maybe continued his fight to get back into form. Even if he was left out of a series, he could have maybe gone down to first-class cricket, played in Australia, England, more matches in India, and tried to make another comeback,” said Manjrekar.
Over the course of his last five years in Test cricket, Kohli had a protracted bad run, scoring 2028 runs at an average of 30.72 from 39 matches (69 innings) starting in 2021, including three hundreds and nine fifties. Kohli was often dismissed behind the wicket as bowlers continued to take advantage of his weakness outside the off stump.
Scott Boland was the player who dismissed Kohli the most frequently during the last five years of his career, taking the Indian batter’s wicket five times. Kohli managed just 190 runs from nine innings in his final series against Australia, including a century in the first Test in Perth.
Boland dismissed him four times during the rubber and Kohli decided to end his Test career a few months later. With 9230 runs from 123 games (210 innings), including 30 hundreds and 31 fifties, Kohli retired. At the end of 2019, his average was 54.97; by the end of his career, it was 46.85.
