If Virat Kohli hadn’t retired from Test cricket, the former Indian captain Krishnamachari Srikkanth revealed that he would have persuaded the renowned batsman to lead the Indian team and restore the glory. However, on Monday, May 12, the star batsman shocked Srikkanth and everyone else by announcing his retirement on social media.
When India toured Australia in 2011–12, Srikkanth was persuaded to include Virat Kohli in the Test team due to his exceptional talent and promise as a young player. The selection committee’s head at the time, Srikkanth, saw his choice come to pass as Virat Kohli made a big impression upon his arrival in whites in 2012 by scoring his first century Down Under.
He had a unique gift. We all appreciated Virat Kohli honesty, moral character, and everything else, thus I believe he was exceptional.
At the time, he was also a highly diligent boy. And we all saw his great potential, which is why we selected him for the Australian series before anyone else,” Srikkanth remarked through Revsportz.
It goes without saying that when you choose a young person to serve as a selector, you always do it with the expectation that he will succeed greatly in the future. However, no one gave this much thought. The cricketer, who was born in Chennai, continued, “And the rest is history.”
The 65-year-old revealed that he would have spoken with the star player to return the honour to India’s Test cricket outfit before retiring from the format, but he also emphasised that the selectors should have persuaded the top-order batter.
“Boss, you lead the team, restore glory to Indian Test cricket, and then quit Test cricket,” I would say if I were the chairman right now. He ought to have been persuaded by the selectors. I would have asked him to captain India in England if I had been there. Bring back India’s Test cricket heyday and retire. It would have been the ideal conclusion, he said.