Virat Kohli Refused To Have Farewell Test As Captain- Reports

Indian cricketer Virat Kohli reportedly turned down the offer to play a farewell Test as captain which could incidentally have been his 100th Test for the Indian cricket team.

On Saturday, Kohli announced his decision to step down as the Test captain, which came as a surprise to the cricketing world. His final Test ended in a terrible defeat at the hands of South Africa and a subsequent series loss.

Prior to the announcement on social media, Kohli had revealed the news to his teammates and BCCI secretary, Jay Shah. Following the decision, a senior BCCI official reportedly offered a farewell match as captain and a gala in Bengaluru.

In response, Kohli stated that is not part of who he is and refused the offer. “One match makes no difference. That’s now how I am,” he stated as per a report in Hindustan Times.

BCCI in no hurry to find a replacement for Virat Kohli

Now that India doesn’t have a Test lined up until late February, the selectors and BCCI are taking their time to decide the successor. Although India replaced Kohli with Rohit Sharma in white-ball formats, it isn’t the same with Test cricket.

Rohit may find it hard to balance the workload of all three formats and he has also been on the rise in Test cricket of late. Therefore, it would make more sense to let him focus on his batting as that is what the Indian team needs the most.

The other options include KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant but both of them are quite inexperienced and the former returned to the Test side just seven matches ago. As for Pant, it would seldom make sense to put pressure on a youngster this early on.

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