“Would have told Virat Kohli to retire after England tour,” Dilip Vengsarkar said of England vs. India in 2025

Midway through the Indian Premier League (IPL), Virat Kohli surprised the cricket community by declaring his retirement from Test cricket. On May 12, the Delhi batter decided to publicly say goodbye to his preferred format on social media. Only a few days after Rohit Sharma made the decision to retire from the game’s longest format, this statement was made.

With a somewhat inexperienced team captained by a teenage player named Shubman Gill, India headed to England. The Punjab batsman led India to a 2-2 draw with Ben Stokes and company in the UK, demonstrating both leadership and captaincy skills.

Dilip Vengsarkar, a former head selector for India, stated that he would have asked Kohli to delay his retirement decision till the conclusion of the England series if he had been a member of the selection committee. The former captain of India believes that under English conditions, Virat Kohli experience and class would have been useful.

“After playing the England series, I would have convinced Virat Kohli to say farewell to Test cricket if I had been the Indian top selector. In this series, we required his expertise and class,” Vengsarkar told The Times of India.

Throughout his Test career, Virat Kohli results in England have been inconsistent.

His first red-ball tour of England in 2014 brought his issues outside of the off-stump to light. Despite his disappointing performance on that tour, he recovered admirably in 2018, scoring 655 runs in his role as captain. The 2021–22 tour, which included the World Test Championship final, was difficult for him, though.

In his 17 Test matches in England, Virat Kohli has amassed 1096 runs at an average of 33.21. He has amassed two hundreds and five half-centuries, with his highest score of 149 coming in the opening Test match in 2018 at Edgbaston, Birmingham. After retiring from Test and Twenty20 Internationals, Kohli is anticipated to make his next appearance in international cricket when India visits Australia for three One-Day Internationals in October.