India Great Questions Decision To Let Virat Kohli Retire Before England Tour: "Would Have Persuaded..."

NDTV

4 days ago

Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma 's Test retirements ahead of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy took the nation by surprise. While both the veterans were battling a lean patch in the longest format, their absence was unthinkable in England, a place where India has not won any series since 2007. Yet, when the series happened, a young team led by Shubman Gill, surprised everyone and came close to winning the series. Former India star and ex-BCCI chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar said he would have liked to play Kohli in the series.
"If I were the India chief selector, I would have persuaded Virat to bid goodbye to Test cricket after playing the England series. We needed his class and experience in this series," Vengsarkar, a 116-Test veteran, said in an interview to TOI.
Talking more about the India vs England series, Vengsarkar said coach Gautam Gambhir was right in aggressively going against the Oval curator, Lee Fortis, who stopped the India team from standing too close to the pitch.
"As the head coach of the Indian team, Gambhir had every right to see the pitch from close quarters. When teams tour India, their entire team—and not just the coach and captain—examine the pitch minutely. Even their media inspects the pitch before the match. No one tells them anything. So, how are the rules different when we are playing in England?" Vengsarkar said.
He went on to say that Matthew Hayden had no business in saying that Gambhir should have used 'better language' against the pitch curator.
"Would Hayden, or any of the Aussie cricketers, take it well if a curator had asked them to stay away from the square ahead of an important match? If this had happened to the Aussies, they would have used the choicest of words to show the curator his place," Vengsarkar said.
The 1983 World Cup winner was critical of the way BCCI handled Jasprit Bumrah's workload management. The fast bowler played only three out of the five Tests.
"Considering the importance of the India versus England Tests series and his fragile back, Bumrah should have been told by the BCCI, selectors and the Indian team management to miss IPL-2025. It was very important that we had a fully fit and refreshed Bumrah for this iconic series. If I was the India chief selector, I would have convinced Mukesh Ambani (Mumbai Indians owner) and Bumrah that it was important for Bumrah to miss the IPL for the England series, or play a lesser number of matches in the IPL. I'm sure that they would have agreed to do so," he said.
"Who remembers the runs and wickets taken in the IPL? However, people will remember Mohammed Siraj 's lion-hearted performance in this series (23 wickets in five Tests), Shubman Gill (754 runs in five Tests), KL Rahul (532), Yashasvi Jaiswal (411 runs) and Rishabh Pant 's (479) sublime batting, and Washington Sundar 's superb all-round performance (284 runs & seven wickets in four Tests).
"A series like this one takes place probably once in four years. I believe India are not playing a five-Test series till Jan 2027 (against Australia). It was a series for the ages and I wish Bumrah was available for almost all the Tests. We could have won the series if that was the case."