After subtle digs, Sanjay Manjrekar pens passionate post on Virat Kohli’s Test retirement ahead of ENG vs IND 2025 series

Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar penned a passionate post on Virat Kohli's Test retirement. The star batter announced his retirement from Test cricket on Monday, May 12.

Manjrekar had taken subtle digs at Virat Kohli over his strike-rate during the IPL 2025 season, which has been suspended for a week and is likely to resume soon. However, after Kohli's decision to retire from Tests came in officially, the former cricketer put up a passionate post on his X (Twitter) handle.

He called Virat Kohli the biggest brand of modern cricket and lauded him for giving it his all in the longest format of the game. Manjrekar also added that Test cricket owes a debt to Kohli for his contributions in the format, writing:

"Biggest brand of the modern cricket era who gave it all for cricket’s oldest format. Test cricket owes that debt to Virat Kohli. 🙏🙏🙏," his tweet read.

Notably, India are set to tour England for a five-Test series in June this year. Kohli's retirement ahead of the crucial series could come as a big blow for the Indian team.

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Virat Kohli's Test career

Virat Kohli made his Test debut in 2011 against the West Indies at Kingston. He not only went on to become one of the world's best batters in the format but also captained India successfully in Test cricket.

The right-hander played 123 Tests for India during his career, scoring 9250 runs at an average of 46.85. He also notched up as many as 30 hundreds and 31 half-centuries with a best score of an unbeaten 254.

His last Test came during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia in the fifth and final Test of the series in Sydney. Kohli had scored a hundred in the first Test of the series in Perth but did not end the tour well, scoring only 190 runs overall from five matches at an average of 23.75.

In his last Test innings, he scored just six runs off 12 balls before being dismissed by Scott Boland.