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It took me a while to accept this. As a big fan of Virat Kohli, I was expecting a final golden period for him in red ball cricket. Even in the recent Border Gavaskar Trophy, he looked promising in almost every innings, but couldn’t get a big one after that first game. Will always miss his energy and dedication in this format.

I am also thinking about our playing XI going forward. I just hope that they don’t rush Pant to no. 4. He is one of those players who plays better when you leave him free and without expectations. Same is the case with Ravindra Jadeja. These two will surely do well at 6 & 7, but they should not be brought into the top five.

Jaiswal, Rahul & Gill are the obvious choices for top three as of now. Pant & RJ at 6 & 7. So selectors need to find two batsmen for 4 & 5 positions. Iyer, Paddikal, Reddy, Sarfaraz, Karun & Sudarshan are the names that come to my mind. Then, obviously, there is the experienced duo of Jinks & Pujara. Let’s see whom they pick. Waiting eagerly for this.

It is time he retired from test cricket. In the last series in Australia, his performance was simply not upto the mark of an international test player who has played a 100 test matches. Getting out in same manner continuously outside the off stump in Australia and even at home, it was time for him to retire. His expertise is in ODI format and i think he should stick to playing that. Good decision taken by him and Rohit Sharma.

P.S.- I think like MSD, he will continue playing IPL till next 6-7 years.

Wait what? Except for the century in 1st test, he went out in similar fashion every inning. Just that Rohit Sharma was way worse and hence more criticism was directed towards him compared to Kohli. Rest Kohli looked to be struggling in the series.

Having said that its not like we have some amazing set of players waiting in the dugout to fill the large shoes. It will be interesting to see how things move hereon for our test side.

Mate! You don't have to put down someone else to highlight the greatness of another.

I know lot of people wont agree but since Rohit came back into tests as opener in 2019 till he retired he is the top scorer in tests for India. I know a lot of people would be surprised but during this period Rohit has 15% higher average and 12% higher strike rate than Kohli. Kohli is the second highest scorer.

Someone who as per you didn't even deserve a place in eleven has been the highest scorer for the same team. If we take out the dreaded run in the last 2 series the numbers improve for both of them but still Kohli is lagging as he has been worse than Rohit in last 6 years especially in tests. Mind you Kohli has just 4 centuries since Rohit became opener where as Rohit has double the number including a double century.

Overall captaincy record also has Rohit leading again with better W/L ratio, higher win% etc. with two ICC trophies to go with it. Comparing tests only Kohli obviously has a better record but with nothing to show for it. But we need to take into account that Rohit led in much lesser matches - almost 1/3 of Kohli and we don't know how he would have fared had he captained longer & may be earlier when he was younger. At least he has looked a lot better man manager than Kohli. Under Kohli the team never looked settled and players sort of were always under the pump.

Both are cricketing legends and contributed highly towards Indian cricket. One will be remembered as the one who bought the fitness culture and win first attitude(sometimes even ugly) and other as one who broke the ICC cup drought.
Who knows if these two continue and are somehow able to manage till 2027 WC Rohit may become the second Indian captain to win all ICC white ball tournaments just like Dhoni. Both these greats have supplemented/complemented each other well enough keeping their egos aside to bring laurels for the country. I rate Kohli better as hyper genius who did his own thing and inspired others whereas Rohit was clearly a better leader and had certain calmness which rubbed off the team. Rohit's test career took off way too late for him to be considered for captaincy earlier else he would have got better results as a captain.

Lets not put down any of these players. They all (including Kohli, Rohit , all past and present players) sacrifice so much and bring joy to all of us fans. And they all deserve respect for that.

We can all bring our analysis to prove one is better than the other and it will not take us anywhere. These are certified great of the game and they did the best they could have done. Lets enjoy and celebrate them.

I remember watching him 2-3 times playing 50-60 balls, without scoring much though. But overall he had a poor series, no two sides to that. Maybe the fan inside me got a bit too ambitious while typing that statement. I feel sorry for that.:)

Jaiswal
Sudarshan
KL Rahul
Gill
Jadeja
Pant
Reddy
Bumrah
Siraj
Shami
Arshdeep/Harshit Rana/Prasidh

The top 4 select themselves. Jadeja is very poor batting with the tail so he needs to be shifted up the order considering his decent defensive technique. Reddy has shown that he is capable of batting in the top 6 but there's no place for him there. If he doesn't get runs you can get in Jurel, Sarfaraz or Shreyas Iyer (if selected in the squad). Team needs 4 Seamers at any cost irrespective of losing batting depth! Shardul instead of IPL would have been better off with that County stint which he initially signed up for. Jadeja isn't going to get many wickets on English pitches & whatever wickets Reddy gets will be a bonus. Shami has lost a bit of nip & his fitness is a huge question mark. So you cannot possibly have a 2 & a bit bowlers in your setup as we found out in Australia. Also, none of Bumrah & Shami should play all 5 Tests.

Quite a dilemma now for the Coach and selectors. I would rather look for an unorthodox line up (definitely not going to be possible)

Jaiswal
Sudarshan
Gill (C)
S Iyer
KL Rahul
R Pant (wk)
A Patel
N Reddy
B Kumar (highly unlikely)
M Shami
J Bhumrah

This is the time to reward Karun Nair for his amazing run in Ranji, or else just scrap Ranji if you are not going to reward players for performing there.

Jaiswal
KL Rahul
Gill
Karun
Iyer
Pant
Jadeja
Reddy
Shami
Siraj
Bumrah

It may sound harsh but I don’t get the idea of having a batsman at 8 who can bowl a bit. Such a conservative call would had never been taken in Virat-Shastri era. If they see Reddy as a future prospect, they have to be bold enough to bat him at 4 or 5. For batting at 8, you need a bowling all rounder like Thakur or Chahar or even Bhuvi. My squad will be-
Jaiswal
Rahul
Gill
Reddy
Iyer/Rahane (both are smart captains and will assist Gill in English conditions)
Pant
Jadeja
Thakur
Arshdeep
Bumrah
Siraj
Reserves- Rahane/Iyer, Shami, Sundar, Sudarshan, Jurel, Harshit/Prasiddh, Kuldeep.

India’s great batsman retires from Tests!