Virat Kohli announced his Test retirement last month, leaving the country and his fans surprised. Kohli, who was considered an ambassador for Test cricket, called time on his career just ahead of the Test series against England.
India's Test side was a team in transition after suffering losses to New Zealand at home and Australia abroad. The losses saw them getting knocked out of the ICC World Test Championship.
Ahead of the start of the WTC final and a week ahead of India's Test series against England, Ravi Shastri spoke to the ICC on Kohli's Test retirement.
Ravi Shastri Saddened By Virat Kohli's Test Retirement
The video in which he spoke about Kohli's retirement has quickly gone viral on social media. Shastri was very close to Kohli and has also coached the team with him as captain. Some of India's most decorated victories in the format came under the Shastri-Kohli era.
The Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee named Shubman Gill as the new Test captain of the side. Meanwhile, previous reports said that Kohli wanted to become the Test captain after India's poor show against the Kiwis and the Aussies.
Now that rumor has been all but confirmed by Ravi Shastri himself in the video aired on the Sony Sports Network. He even went to the extent of saying that had things been under his control, he would have made Kohli as the captain again.
"If I had anything to do with it, I would have made him captain, straightaway after Australia," Shastri said in a video shared by SonyLiv on social media.
Shastri seemed very disappointed while talking about Kohli's retirement in the video. He spoke about how badly he loved Test cricket and what an ambassador he was for the game.
"Virat has announced his retirement from Test matches, which is sad, you know, because he's a great player. A great player. It's only when you go that people truly realise how big a player you were. Stats don’t do justice — it’s about the way he carried himself, especially as an ambassador for Test match cricket, particularly overseas. The way he played at Lord’s, and how his team turned things around — it was unreal. And I’m glad I was a part of it," Shastri said.
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Kohli's Numbers In Test Cricket
Kohli called time on his Test career just short of 10000 runs after playing 123 Test matches. He scored 9,230 runs at an average of 46.85, including 30 centuries.
