Why Virat Kohli's Test retirement should not surprise anyone

Imagine a singer of international repute suddenly losing his voice while trying to hit the high notes in front of an audience he had under the spell of his five-octave vocal range for close to two decades.

Now that must be the worst nightmare of every performing artist.

Or imagine Manny Pacquiao stepping into the arena for the biggest fight of his life only to struggle for the sting in his left hook. 

Does a boxer have a place to hide in the ring?

You can also imagine a leader with great oratory skills battling to find the right words in the middle of a speech while trying to lift the morale of a nation in crisis. 

Now imagine that kind of nightmarish struggles littering your life again and again.

And now you imagine Virat Kohli’s state of mind every time Test cricket knocks on his door.

The cover drive was his biggest weapon. Now it’s his biggest weakness.  It’s strange how the most romantic of all cricketing shots began to bring misery to cricket’s beloved superstar.  

Few players have played the cover drive as elegantly as Kohli. Arguably the greatest white-ball batsman of all time, Kohli, at his peak, was a monster in red-ball cricket.

Marrying the relentless aggression with a sublime batting touch, the Kohli juggernaut was unstoppable before the menace of Covid-19 brought the world to a screeching halt. Since his debut in 2011, India’s most famous number four after Sachin Tendulkar, amassed 7,223 runs in just 85 Tests with 27 hundreds. He scored those runs at a staggering average of 54.30.

This was just before the start of the first global lockdown and Kohli, a man known for his incredible fitness, had just turned 31. 

It seemed he was capable of even matching his idol Tendulkar’s record in Test cricket.

But when cricket returned after the world slowly got back on its feet amid the Covid-19 mayhem, a fatal error crept into Kohli’s batting. 

The man who would play the cover drive for fun was no longer able to find the middle of the bat against balls that pitched outside the off stump.

Repeated caught behind dismissals became so frustrating for Kohli that he began to look a pale shadow of the giant he once was in Test cricket.  Since the month of March in 2020 until his last Test in January this year, Kohli managed only 1990 runs in 37 Tests at an average of 32.9. 

During this period, he reached the three-figure mark only thrice. 

Now at the age of 36, he decided to quit the red ball game with 9230 runs. 

For most players across generations, this is a fantastic record. 

But for a player who looked destined to join the likes of Tendulkar and Brian Lara in the pantheon of Test batting legends, this end to his Test career would always feel like the unspeakable pain when someone twists the knife in your heart. 

A player who never gave up the fight in a chase eventually showed the white flag as he was unable to overcome his outside the off-stump issue against the swinging red ball. 

A few hours after Kohli wrote a heartfelt message on social media, announcing his decision to bid adieu to cricket’s purest format, legendary Indian batsman Dilip Vengsarkar revealed why he was not surprised by the news which left the cricket world in a state of shock.  

It was Vengsarkar, the then chairman of selectors, who had fast-tracked an 18-year-old Kohli into the Indian team in 2008. 

Former Indian captain Dilip Vengsarkar.

“It’s a sad day for me because I first saw him in his under 16 days when I was the chairman of the Talent Research Development of the Indian cricket board,” Vengsarkar told Khaleej Times over the phone from Mumbai. 

“You know the important factor is that all great players set a certain standard for themselves — whether you are a batter or a bowler, it doesn’t matter. All the greats of the game set the standards very high. So when they feel that they are not up to the mark mentally, or they lack a certain motivation to maintain that high level, it’s then that they decide to quit.” 

Kohli may not have finished his Test career with 10,000 runs, but Vengsarkar feels numbers don’t reflect Kohli’s impact. 

“He has been outstanding throughout his career not only because of the runs and centuries he made, but also for his fitness level, passion and work ethic. He raised the bar very high. His contribution to Indian cricket is huge,” the former India captain said.  

Having already retired from T20Is, it’s hard to imagine an Indian team without Kohli in two formats of the game now. 

He is still a formidable batter in ODIs, though, where the white ball doesn't play as many tricks as the red ball in Test Cricket.

And in the 50 overs format, it’s not hard to imagine even an ageing player with slower reflexes to execute the picture-perfect cover drive!