VVS Laxman, Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid all played their last Test match in Australia. While it won’t ever be proved, none of them retired. They were retired. A loud and clear message was sent to them by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI): retire yourself before we drop you. And that’s what they did.
But that’s not the case with Virat Kohli. He, like them, played his final Test match in Australia as well. The former India captain announced his retirement without any pressure. Or perhaps that’s what many thought. We heard before that Kohli wasn’t too pleased with how Rohit Sharma was treated.
Despite being India captain, he was dropped for the Sydney Test. Yes, his performance wasn’t up to par. But Rohit was the leader of the team. And if the captain can be dropped, why couldn’t Kohli? This was something that was going on in his mind before he announced his retirement.
Virat Kohli retires, on his own terms
After Sachin Tendulkar, Kohli is the biggest name in Indian cricket’s history. And he didn’t want to be disregarded. He feared that if things didn’t turn out well for him in England, there was a realistic chance that he would be either dropped or asked to retire from Test cricket.
But Kohli does things on his terms. We saw that on the cricket field. When he was at the crease, it was he who was in control and not the other way around. He wouldn’t dance to the bowler’s tune. And he wouldn’t dance to BCCI, the chief selector or the head coach’s tune. So Kohli announced his retirement from Test cricket. Going out on his own terms.
“Virat is the biggest star of the current generation of cricketers, and he can’t be seen treated with disregard. If he did not score runs for India in England, the entire anti-Virat entourage would speak about his poor form and would even demand his Test retirement,” a top BCCI official told CricBlogger.
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