'They were scared of Virat Kohli...': Legendary umpire makes stunning revelation
Former ICC umpire Anil Chaudhary has revealed his experiences when he umpired India's Test matches where the Men in Blue were led by skipper Virat Kohli.
Anil Chaudhary retired from the duties of umpiring earlier in 2025, as he retired from both ICC tournaments and the Indian Premier League. The last international match of his career was an international between India and Australia back in 2024, while his last match in domestic cricket came in the Ranji Trophy final in 2025.
Chaudhary's career as an umpire marked a decade from 2013 to 2024/25, where he stood as an on-field umpire in 12 Tests, 49 ODIs, 64 T20Is internationally, and 131 IPL games. His domestic figures are vast, with 91 first-class matches, 114 List A, and 278 T20 games.
Anil Chaudhary on Virat Kohli's aura on the field
Chaudhary, in his umpiring career, claimed that he saw Virat Kohli's fear unleashed on the field as the opposition teams were scared of Kohli's aggressive mindset on the field. Kohli's presence on the field kept every opposition under extreme pressure, as Anil Chaudhary suggests.
"I did on-field umpiring and I’ve seen it myself, the other team was literally scared of Virat Kohli and they were under next-level pressure."
"More than half of the team’s attention would be on Kohli. Just seeing him made the opposition players tremble, that’s the kind of aura Kohli had," said Anil Chaudhary as quoted by the Indian Express.
Umpire Anil Chaudhary said - "I did on-field umpiring and I’ve seen it myself, the other team was literally scared of Virat Kohli and they were under next-level pressure. More than half of the team’s attention would be on Kohli. Just seeing him made the opposition players… pic.twitter.com/4puG4pzmWa
— Tanuj (@ImTanujSingh) July 4, 2025
Shubman Gill surpasses Kohli's record during the Edgbaston Test
Indian captain Shubman Gill has begun his journey with the men in blue. He is relatively a younger player with less Test experience, despite which he has been preferred to be handed the captaincy role for the Indian Test side.
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However, Shubman too has embraced the role of Indian captain, as the added responsibility seems to have given a new flair to his dynamic batting approach. The batter seems more confident than before and has taken the international red-ball format by storm with his back-to-back hundreds in England.
This can be cited as the beginning of one of the primes for Shubman Gill, as the batter in the ongoing Edgbaston test scored a stunning 269, which took him past former Indian captain Virat Kohli.
Kohli had 254* as the highest score by an Indian captain in Test matches; however, Gill has surpassed him and that too outside Asia, on the tracks of England.
Captain at no. 4—Kohli, ideally replaced by Gill in Test cricket
The captain coming in to bat at no. 4 has been India's most successful stint in Test cricket. The great Virat Kohli was a batter at no. 4 in Test cricket for India after legend Sachin Tendulkar retired from the longest format.
Kohli was handed the Indian Test captaincy in 2015, and since then, he has batted at no. 4. Kohli hit his all-time prime in Tests during this stint until 2019 and took India to new highs in the format.
India was the no. 1-ranked Test side by the ICC for the first time under Virat Kohli's leadership. He also reformed the strategies of a test match for India and introduced the idea of aggressive tests with his batting as well as attacking fielding setups.
Shubman Gill has also shown a glimpse of Virat Kohli's genius with the bat at no. 4, now he has to make the next move as a successful skipper of the Indian side.
