Delhi: Former Team India veteran batsman Mohammad Kaif has claimed that Virat Kohli did not get the support from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the selectors that he expected, and perhaps that is why he decided to retire from Test cricket with immediate effect.
44-year-old Mohammad Kaif said in a special conversation with the news agency, IANS, “I think he wanted to continue to play in this format. There must have been some internal conversation with the BCCI, the selectors might have cited their performance in the last 5-6 years, saying that now their place is not in the team.
He further said, “But the way this decision was taken in the last moment, and he played the Ranji Trophy, it seems clear that he wanted to return to the upcoming Test matches. In the last few weeks, the incidents that happened, they feel that he did not get the support from the BCCI and the selectors, which he expected.”
In recent times, Kohli was struggling to score continuously in Test cricket. He scored 190 runs in 9 innings in the 2024/25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy series. India lost this series 3–1.
The right-handed batsman said, “He appeared in a hurry to score runs in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25. He has to play for hours in Test cricket, which he has done earlier, but this time the bowlers were seen getting dismissed again and again in trying to drive the balls going out of the bowlers, which felt that his bearing was not the same.”
Kaif said, “Perhaps he was thinking that ‘I am at the last stop of a career, so now what is the benefit of making a struggle full of century. Earlier he used to leave the balls, take time, tired the bowlers and then take them under control, but he did not see in Australia.”
The former Indian cricketer said, “To be dismissed in the same way, it probably shows that he was not ready to stand at the crease for hours. The conversation with the BCCI and his own red-ball cricket, wise, must have played a role in this decision.”
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