"Virat Kohli's act was not of disappointment, but resignation"- Sanjay Manjrekar sends shockwaves

Former Indian player Sanjay Manjrekar again lashed out at Virat Kohli as he believed that the outside off-stump weakness would ultimately finish Kohli’s Test career early.

Kohli shocked the cricketing world on May 12 by announcing his retirement from the red-ball format. Kohli’s last outings in the white jersey hadn’t been impressive as he managed only two 50+ scores in his last 19 Test innings, and his average was barely 23.

Sanjay Manjrekar pinpoints reason for Virat Kohli’s early retirement

Manjrekar thinks the outside off-stump trap took down Kohli’s Test career as he was trapped eight out of nine times in the last Australian tour.

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"The decision to quit Test cricket must not have been easy, I wonder if, in some way, the constant effort to find a solution to his problems outside off has taken its toll,” Manjrekar wrote.

“Not once did I get the impression that he wasn’t trying to plug that massive hole in his defensive game; try and try he did but in the end, as we saw in Australia when he got out right at the end of the series chasing a delivery outside the off-stump, his reaction was not of disappointment but of resignation,” he added.

Virat Kohli was exposed during the 2014 England tour

Kohli was emerging as the next big thing in Indian cricket before the 2014 England tour. He won the Player of the tournament in the T20I World Cup 2014 and dominated every format of the game.

For the first time, Kohli was exposed in the field by being dismissed in the same manner throughout the tour. James Anderson was the main reason who exposed the weakness of Kohli in front of world cricket.

Kohli, being Kohli, made a superb comeback in the next England tour in 2018 and scored two tons and two half-centuries in the same tour.

Sanjay Manjrekar hails Virat Kohli on 30 tons

After pinpointing Kohli’s weakness, and gave a tag on his retirement. Manjrekar hailed Kohli for scoring 30 centuries in the toughest format of the game. The ace batter finished his career as India’s fourth-highest run-scorer in Test cricket.

Besides batting records, Manjrekar praised Kohli's Test captaincy stint between 2014 and 2022. He led India to win 40 out of 68 Test matches, and under his captaincy, the Indian Test side dominated the ICC rankings as well.

Team India was unbeatable in 11 consecutive Test series at home. Kohli took his side as the number 1 side in the ranking and won the Test mace as well.

Also read: Rohit Sharma an underachiever when compared to Virat Kohli- Ravichandran Ashwin's bombshell