India’s star batter Virat Kohli announcement his retirement from Test cricket on May 12, 2025. He confirmed his retirement through an Instagram post.
Kohli’s decision to call it quits came ahead of the England tour. He was expected to travel to UK for the upcoming five-Test series that will mark the beginning of India’s new WTC cycle. It was also reported that the BCCI officials were in talks with the stalwart to make him change his mind, but they couldn’t succeed.
Nearly a month later, former England all-rounder Monty Panesar made a bold claim about Virat Kohli's Test retirement, suggesting that vulnerability outside off-stump could be the reason behind his big decision.
Kohli’s Test future had come under severe scrutiny after his flop show in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024/25. He began the marquee series with a second innings hundred (100*) at Perth, but managed to amass only 90 runs in his other eight innings combined as the Australian pacers exploited his weakness outside the off-stump.
Virat Kohli’s constant struggles in whites in the last few years saw his career average dropping to below 50.
Panesar believes Kohli would have found it tougher to deal with the moving ball around the off-stump had he travelled to England this time around.
"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," Panesar told PTI.
"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.
"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."
However, Panesar commended Kohli for his outstanding Test career, adding that his decision to step away was likely driven by a desire to create opportunities for the next generation.
"I think he's done very well as a cricketer in all formats. He has been a brilliant ambassador for Test cricket. He probably feels that he's done his best, he's achieved everything and probably feels like it's time for the youngsters to step up," Panesar remarked.
According to Panesar, Kohli managed to bounce back successfully in 2018 but staging a similar comeback at this stage of his career would be significantly more difficult.
"It would be a lot tougher for Kohli to repeat the same performances of 2018. 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.
"So he's thinking it's better for Indian cricket to give youngsters a go and hopefully find the next superstar," said Panesar.
Virat Kohli finished his Test career with 9230 runs from 123 matches at an average of 46.85, including 30 centuries and 31 fifties, with the highest score of 254.
