Virat Kohli's No. 18 Jersey Set To Be 'Retired' As No Player Wants 'Burden'
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Virat Kohli's number 18 jersey is set to be 'unofficially retired' from Indian cricket because no new player is likely to take the 'burden' of his legacy number.
News18
Hours after pacer Mukesh Kumar's wearing of a Number-18 kit for India 'A' against England Lions caused an uproar on social media, a new report has claimed that no player is likely to take up the number — immortalised by the recently retired Virat Kohli — in Tests 'in the near future'.
According to news agency PTI, Mukesh has not officially taken up the number and just wore it for the unofficial Test, while if he's called up to the senior squad that'll play five Tests against England, his jersey number will be 49 — the one he has been wearing since his debut.
The report added that just like Sachin Tendulkar's jersey No. 10 and MS Dhoni's No. 7, 'it was unlikely' that any player would be open to taking the 'burden' of the legacy number.
'Mukesh wore No. 18 during the opening 'Test' match versus Lions. But when it comes to India A squad, there are no fixed numbers as jerseys don't have names. Anyone can pick any random number. The jersey numbers are only sacrosanct for international games," the news agency quoted a senior BCCI official as saying.
The report claimed that the two new members of the squad, B Sai Sudharsan and Arshdeep Singh, will also not wear the number 18 jersey.
In Indian cricket, there is no official tradition for retiring specific jersey numbers, nor is there any such rule mentioned by the International Cricket Council (ICC). But both Tendulkar and Dhoni's numbers haven't been worn since their retirements, except for one instance when Mumbai all-rounder Shardul Thakur wore the 10 and was abused, forced to change it again.
Kohli announced his Test retirement on May 12 via an Instagram post, saying that although the decision was difficult, he felt the time was right to call of the 14-year-long journey. India's five-Test series against England will be the first since then and several options — new captain Shubman Gill, debutant-call-up Sai Sudharsan and returnee Karun Nair have been touted as options to take his number four position.
In the India 'A' game, where Gill and Sudharsan didn't play, Nair scored a double ton to strengthen his chances while Mukesh picked up three wickets.
First Published:
June 02, 2025, 21:23 IST
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