It is still hard to get one’s head around the fact that Virat Kohli will no longer be playing Test cricket for India. The man who made the whites his own will no longer grace the field in the longest format following his retirement in May 2025. The right-handed batter who was enduring a difficult time in Tests over the last five years, called time on his career in the longest format, having played 123 matches in which he scored 9230 runs at an average of 46.85.
Ahead of the first Test between India and England in Headingley, Leeds, former England captain Nasser Hussain and former India wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik spoke about Kohli’s retirement and how Test cricket would dearly miss a character like him.
In India’s last series against Australia, Kohli kept getting out in a similar fashion as he kept nicking deliveries bowled outside off. In the nine innings he batted in, Kohli scored 190 runs. His numbers would have looked all the more abysmal had he not registered a century in the series opener in Perth.
Everyone expected Kohli to make the trip to the UK, considering he played a Ranji Trophy match for Delhi against Railways in January 2025. However, his decision left cricket fans and pundits shocked.
While speaking about Kohli, Nasser Hussain recalled the famous Lord’s Test match from 2021, in which India registered a memorable victory. He spoke about Kohli’s passionate pep-talk during the team huddle, in which he told his side to unleash “60 overs of hell.”’
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“I was asked something by the ECB the other day, your favourite India, England moment historically, and there’ve been so many. It may not be my favourite, but it’s the one that stuck with me the most, was in the huddle that last morning at Lord’s when England were trying to chase down a score,” Hussain told Sky Sports.
‘Kohli added so much to Tests’
Speaking further, Nasser said that fans and pundits will eventually move on from Virat Kohli, but one cannot deny the impact he had in the longest format of the game.
“They unleashed hell and their side became a sort of mirror image of Kohli, the character, the feistiness of Siraj, Bumrah in your face, Shami in your face. Kohli, Test match cricket is so much better when Kohli was playing,” said Hussain.
“We will move on. We moved on from Gavaskar to Tendulkar to Kohli and maybe to Gill, but Kohli added so much to this game of cricket,” he added.
Earlier this month, after Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s (RCB) maiden IPL triumph, Kohli spoke about how this victory still rates five levels below Test cricket. He also advised the youngsters to take up Test cricket if they want to earn respect from their peers and competitors.
“It was great to see what he said when he won that IPL about Test match cricket and what he told the next generation of that is where you make your name in Test match cricket,” said Hussain.
Speaking about the first Test between India and England, the latter won the toss and opted to bowl first.
