BCCI is desperate to prevent Kohli's retirement !

Virat Kohli has told the Indian cricket board (BCCI) that he wishes to retire from Test cricket, but top officials have asked him to reconsider the decision . Our trusted sources said, “He has made up his mind and has informed the board that he is moving on from Test cricket. The BCCI has urged him to rethink as the crucial England tour is coming up. He is yet to revert on the request,” Kohli’s decision comes on the back of Rohit Sharma’s Test retirement a couple of days ago. India’s selectors are set to meet in a few days to pick the team for the five-Test series in England next month. It is learnt that Kohli has been contemplating his Test future since the Border Gavaskar Trophy in Australia earlier this year, when he went through a lean run after scoring a century in the first Test. Kohli doesn’t change his mind, and with Rohit out of the picture, it will leave India with a largely inexperienced middle-order to join forces with KL Rahul, Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal at the top, and Rishabh Pant later down the order. 

The 36-year-old Kohli has played 123 Tests for India and has scored 9,230 runs at an average of 46.85. His average dipped in the last five years, aggregating 1,990 runs in 37 games with three hundreds. During the recent tour of Australia, he ended up with an average of 23.75 from five Tests. Out of his eight dismissals on the tour, Kohli got out to deliveries outside off stump on seven occasions. Later, he spoke about the disappointment from that tour during an event in March for his IPL team RCB, saying, “I might not have an Australia tour again in me in four years’ time.” Speaking at the event about the mental pressures after the recent Test failures, he had said, “Once you start taking on the energy and the disappointment from the outside, then you start burdening yourself way more… And then you start thinking about things, like ‘I’ve got two or three days left on this tour, I need to make an impact now’. And you start getting more desperate. That’s something I’ve surely experienced in Australia as well.” It was in England that Kohli had recorded one of his greatest highs as a Test batter, on the 2018 tour. He was the top run-getter across the two sides in the five Tests, aggregating 583 at an average of 59.30 with two centuries. That it came after he had scored just 134 runs in ten innings on the previous tour, in 2014, made the performance that much more special. That year, 2018, was also his best in terms of aggregate for a year, when he scored 1322 runs. 

True to life has learnt that Kohli, after having received a request from the board to reconsider his decision in the wake of Rohit Sharma also retiring from the format ahead of what will be a crucial series has not backed down from his stand. Sources revealed, that the BCCI and the selection committee are still trying to convince him to tour and shore up India’s inexperienced middle-order on such an important tour. Kohli has had a stellar Test career but has struggled in the format in recent times. In Australia late last year, the repetitive manner of his dismissals — caught fishing outside off stump — even raised questions about whether he still deserved a permanent place in the side. Despite his recent struggles and prolonged dip in form, the selectors are keen that he be present in India’s squad in England to lend experience to a new-look team, in which Shubman Gill has emerged as the likely frontrunner for the captain’s post. Kohli’s unavailability, if it comes to pass, could present a new headache for the selectors regarding his replacement at No. 4 in the batting order. If Kohli doesn’t budge, the selectors may be forced to look at either Shreyas Iyer or Karun Nair as likely replacements. Meanwhile, Rajat Patidar has emerged as a strong contender to replace Sarfaraz Khan in the squad.