Virat Kohli’s sudden retirement from Test cricket has been the talk of the town for a while now. This time, former Team India head coach Ravi Shastri has weighed in. In his recent column for Sportstar, Shastri wrote about how Kohli will completely step away from the sport once he retires from all formats.
“He is still around to serve Indian cricket in ODIs, but I also know that Virat will walk away from the game once he is done playing cricket. He is not the kind who would like to coach or take on the role of a broadcaster. I will miss him when India plays its first Test in England. He was a champion, and that is what I would like to remember — never conceding an inch.”
Shastri, however, expressed his wish that Kohli could have continued for two more years in the longest format, especially with India’s upcoming Test series in England. With the question of leadership still open, he believed Kohli would have been an ideal candidate to lead the side once again.
“I am sure Virat still had two years of Test cricket left in him. I would have loved to see him in England this summer. It would have been a good idea to hand him the captaincy for the tour, but he would know best why he decided to leave. Maybe mental fatigue drove him to decide because he was as fit as any other player in the team. He knew his body best, but the mind would have played the decisive role. I will not rule out burnout as the decisive factor in curtailing his career at a critical phase of Indian cricket,” he further wrote.
“I saw him walk out not to play cricket, but to command it.” – Ravi Shastri on Virat Kohli
Shastri also touched on the broader legacy Kohli leaves behind. “I don’t like comparisons. I’ve been asked about Gavaskar and Tendulkar. I was lucky enough to share the dressing room with them. But I saw Virat from a different vantage — not just from the comfort of the broadcaster’s box, but through the suffocating pressure that only a dressing room can know. I saw him walk out not to play cricket, but to command it. To own the battlefield. In doing so, he didn’t just win games; he rewired how India played cricket,” added Shastri.
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