Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar has shared his thoughts on Virat Kohli’s decision to retire from Test cricket before the five-match series against England. Tendulkar said that retiring from cricket is a personal choice, and people should not judge it from the outside.
Virat Kohli’s retirement from Test cricket has created a gap in India’s batting lineup. He finished his Test career as India’s fourth-highest run-scorer, with 9,230 runs in 123 matches. Besides his batting, Kohli was also India’s most successful Test captain, winning 40 out of the 68 matches he led.
Sachin Tendulkar on Virat Kohli’s sudden Test retirement
While talking to Test Match Special, Sachin Tendulkar said that only the player truly knows how they feel mentally and physically. He added that it’s not fair to give opinions unless you fully understand what the player is going through.
“It’s a personal decision. So, you know, it’s easy for an outsider to just pass a loose comment and say, ‘OK, he shouldn’t have done it’ or ‘he should have done it,’ whatever that may be,”
“But only the individual understands their state of mind and how the body is responding to the longer format of the game. And it’s a personal decision, so it wouldn’t be right for me to make any comment on that,” he added.
Sachin Tendulkar has spoken about Virat Kohli's decision to retire from Test cricket. pic.twitter.com/3swxQEx08S
— Test Match Special (@bbctms) June 19, 2025
For the unversed, Virat Kohli announced his retirement from the T20I format after winning the T20I World Cup 2024, and now he is only active in the 50-over format of the game. Virat Kohli was in the spotlight during the Australia tour earlier this year, but he struggled with the bat, scoring only 190 runs in 11 innings at an average of 23.75. He did hit a century in the second innings of the first Test, but scored just 90 runs in the rest of the series.
Read More
Kohli played three Test series in England during his career. In total, he scored 1,096 runs in 17 matches, with an average of 33.21. His first tour in 2014 didn’t go well, as he scored only 134 runs. But he made a strong comeback in 2018, scoring 593 runs at an average of 59.30, including two centuries and three fifties.
Shubman Gill will bat at number 4
Meanwhile, Indian captain Shubman Gill is expected to replace Virat Kohli at number 4 in the batting line-up. Rishabh Pant will follow Gill at number 5. Speaking on the eve of the opening Test match, Shubman Gill opened up about the team’s decision of playing him at number 4, he revealed:
“After Virat bhai retired, me and GG bhai (Gautam Gambhir) had a discussion about it and we were both clear that he wanted me to be at number four and I was also clear that I also wanted to be at that number,”
The Indian cricket team hasn’t won any Test match in England since 2007.
ENGLAND PLAYING XI FOR ENG vs IND SERIES
England playing XI – Ben Duckett, Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jamie Smith (wk), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir
ALSO READ: Official: COD Mobile World Championship 2025 Details
