Kohli’s retirement from Tests comes as ‘kind of a shock’, says Ankola

New Delhi, May 12 Salil Ankola, former India cricketer and national selector, said Virat Kohli’s Test retirement came as a ‘kind of shock’ to him, saying that he had hoped to see the talismanic batter reach the landmark of 10,000 runs in the longest format of the game.

On Monday, Kohli announced that he’s ended his 14-year Test career with immediate effect, bringing down curtains in an illustrious career, where he amassed 9230 runs in 123 matches at an average of 46.85 – making him the fourth-highest run-getter in Tests for India after Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sunil Gavaskar.

“I just came to know the news about 5 minutes back and still trying to get over it. Nobody thought he would announce it, as I was expecting him to go to England. I mean, this has come just all of a sudden, like Rohit also retires, and now Virat also retires. Two senior members gone – one an opener and other in the middle order. So, it's kind of a shock to me also. I was expecting them to go to England and then take their call later.”

“But them being these two individuals and of course Virat knowing himself best, it's his call. So, you cannot question that. But I was hoping that I could get to see 10,000 Test runs from Virat. Because I had predicted a long time back that he's one person who can go up to 10,000 runs. Now he finishes a little short of that. But it's his decision and I think everyone should just honour it,” said Ankola in an exclusive conversation with IANS.

Kohli, who made his Test debut against the West Indies in June 2011, also led India in 68 matches in the game’s longest format. Under Kohli’s captaincy, India won a Border-Gavaskar Trophy series in Australia for the first time in 2018-19.

Incidentally, Kohli’s last Test match came in Australia, at the Sydney Cricket Ground earlier this year, which India lost by six wickets and lost the series 3-1. It was a series where he scored 190 runs in nine innings – 100 of which came in an unbeaten knock at Perth. In his opinion, Ankola stated Kohli will be amongst the top most Test batters produced by India.

“You can count him in the top 10 Test batters produced by Indian cricket. Virat Kohli could also go into the top five of that list, if I can say that because once in a while, you get a person who is capable of scoring so heavily, and his numbers have proven that.”

“Outside of Tests, he's been one of the mainstay batters in four ICC World Cup Championships also. He was also captain of India in all formats. So, he's one of the topmost batters we've ever had.”

Apart from being a vocal champion of playing Test cricket and promoting its importance amongst young viewers of the game, Kohli also brought about a change in India’s fitness culture, which in turn changed their approach towards playing the longer format.

“The kind of fitness Virat even has today, I mean, he could have easily carried on for the next 2-3 or maybe four years. Everybody has lean patches, but he's overcome those lean patches. Every other person, or a top cricketer has a period of lean patches, and I think Virat had overcome that in the past.”

“Fitness-wise, he is, if at par, I could say even more fit than a 20-year-old at this moment of time also. So, I think, maybe I thought it was a little too early for him to retire. Maybe another 2 years of playing could have easily been under his belt, considering the fitness he has been carrying, and we're definitely going to miss him because 2 senior players retiring from the batting order is a kind of a worry for me,” added Ankola.

Kohli’s decision to retire from Tests comes days after Rohit Sharma announced his Test retirement. The veteran duo retiring in a week means India would travel to England for a five-match Test series starting on June 20 at Headingley with a big void in the batting order.

“Now, you have a lot of youngsters knocking on the door. But now, suddenly, two stalwarts have retired in a span of a week. So, we have to find somebody who can fill their shoes and it’s not easy to find that. It's going to take a little while, because whether they perform, or whether they don't perform, we'll have to wait and watch and see.”

“Yashasvi Jaiswal has taken up top-order role quite well and Shubman Gill is also there, so as KL Rahul. But we are going to be a team of youngsters who are going to be travelling to England now. So, let's wait and watch what the selectors have to do to fill that vacuum. But it's not very easy to fill such a big vacuum, as I think it's the first time two very senior players have retired in a span of a week,” concluded Ankola.

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