"Probably hasn't worked out solutions" - Former England spinner’s massive claim on Virat Kohli's Test retirement ahead of ENG vs IND 2025 Tests

Former England spinner Monty Panesar has claimed that Virat Kohli's issues in Test cricket with deliveries outside the off-stump could have led him to retire ahead of India's upcoming tour of England. India are set to play a five-match Test series in England starting June 20.

Kohli announced his retirement from Test cricket in May. Monty Panesar believes Kohli could have walked away from the format because he was unable to find solutions to his problems against the outside off-stump delivery.

In recent times, Kohli's vulnerability outside the off-stump was exposed, and it became a recurring problem, which even led to his average in the format dipping below 50. Panesar reckoned that the star Indian batter may have found it difficult against the moving ball in England and did not have solutions that would work for him.

"With Kohli, what has happened is that against the ball outside the off stump, the fifth stump line, especially in Australia on fast bouncy pitches he was struggling. So he probably thought maybe the fact that in England it is going to swing a lot more, he'll probably hasn't worked out solutions in that corridor of uncertainty," Panesar told PTI (via Hindustan Times).

"And I think that's probably been one of the reasons why he thought to retire and put all his energy with RCB and ODI cricket for India," he added.

Despite scoring a century in the first Test during India's tour of Australia, Kohli failed to build on the same, finishing with just 190 runs from five matches. Virat Kohli played 123 Tests for India, scoring 9230 runs at an average of 46.85, with 30 hundreds and 31 half-centuries.

---

Monty Panesar claims it would have been a lot tougher for Virat Kohli to replicate 2018 comeback in England

Virat Kohli had an extremely poor Test series in England in 2014. His struggles outside the off-stump were seen for the first time in that series. However, when India returned for another Test series to England in 2018, Kohli had bounced back and scored 593 runs from five matches at an average of 59.30 with two hundreds and three fifties.

Despite the turnaround, Monty Panesar expressed that Kohli would have found it a lot tougher to replicate the same this time around.

"It would be a lot tougher for Kohli to repeat the same performances of2018. Just simple fact that he's been struggling over the last 12 to 18 months with that ball outside off stump. He hasn't got a solution for that, you know problem that he has on fourth and fifth stump," he explained.

With both Kohli and Rohit Sharma having retired from Tests, India named Shubman Gill as the new captain for the format and the upcoming England series.