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Virat Kohli tells BCCI he wants to retire from Test cricket

Source: Indian Express

I think he has at least 2-3 years more in Tests.
The whole captaincy change drama was uncalled for, especially in Tests when everything was fine with Kohli leading. I’m sure that had something to do with his individual performance being affected.

So, the captaincy is not going to Virat Kohli.
Looks like the ICT is the future is being made very "Gambhir"ly.

Brilliant idea from the UAE team :)
https://www.bbc.com/sport/cricket/articles/c2e3k3xx7edo

With the ceasefire declared, IPL will be back quickly, as early as next week, as per sources!
Matches to be apparently played in Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru

That's only if he wants the 2-3 years.

He had a horrible tour down under, and he has just diverted the public attention with 500+ runs in the current IPL.

I don't think he has the confidence to take strike in England. If he feels cricket has left him, he definitely should leave cricket.

Maybe this is Kohli’s way of making one last stand—a subtle message to BCCI that he’s still the leader India needs. With Rohit out, the alternatives don’t inspire much confidence: Gill is still growing, Pant doesn’t have the leadership qualities, Rahul cracks under pressure, and Bumrah is prone to injuries .

If Kohli is using this as a way to get the captaincy, win the series, and bow out like a true champion, I’d be overjoyed.

Well the first time he failed on English tour the ball was swinging and seaming off the pitch and he had a series of failure, after that series the swing from the English conditions was completely lost and he scored runs in tons. So trust me if the ball starts to swing from his 3rd/4th stump line, he is a sitting duck. A club grade cricketer can exploit his weakness, remember Ranji match. I guess all he wants to reach the 10k club in tests and get into the elite club of scorers, else I don’t see any motivation for him to continue. That too needs 770 runs in 5 test matches, highly unlikely even if he plays all tests. And also with a test average of below 47 over his entire career doesn’t speak of any greatness.

First tour - 134 in 10 innings
Second tour - 593 in 10 innings, that’s where ball didn’t move at all.
Third tour - 249 from 9 innings

I don’t think so these are the test stats to be worth bragging about atleast in English conditions from a star player.

I feel he’s already done enough specially in ODI and is past his shelf life now, high time we infuse new talent who are fighters, test match is more of a mental game than the technique. One has to grind hard session after session, that’s why I never consider Pant in the test league, although he won us 2 tests down under which are indeed special. Also we have enough bench strength to start giving them responsibilities. Ganguly once said great players aren’t made from the dug out.

Anyway numbers do highlight Kohli's struggle of late. But he can be an asset if we talk about having some experience of English conditions, which IMO is just poor strategy.

There is no such thing as no swing in English conditions! Infact a lot of it depends on overhead conditions as well even if the pitch is extremely flat. From what I recollect from that tour there definitely was movement, just that Virat found a way to deal with it by trying to take LBW out of the equation by getting his front foot outside the line of off-stump. The Retirement call is not surprising considering its a 5 Match Series & he no longer trusts his technique which is likely to cause a major embarrassment considering his PR/Marketing team refers to him as G.O.A.T !