If Virat Kohli was on this tour of England, he would have scored runs: Sourav Ganguly

Former Indian captain and ex-BCCI President Sourav Ganguly has stated that the Indian talismanic batter Virat Kohli would’ve scored a lot of runs in the five-match Test series against England if he had opted not to retire from the longest format of the game.

Notably, both Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma announced their retirements from Tests earlier last month ahead of the England tour in the new WTC 2025-27 cycle. Further, the BCCI selection committee, led by Ajit Agarkar, appointed Shubman Gill as the new Test captain.

The former Indian captain, Virat Kohli had played 123 Tests, amassing 9230 runs at an average of 46.85 with 30 hundreds and 31 half-centuries in the longest format of the game. Ganguly stated that Kohli’s retirement surprised him completely. 

"I would say it's very irrelevant. My terms, someone else's terms. As a player, you understand. As a player everyone understands where he stands at the moment. Just look at Virat. Everybody says why. I know he didn't have the best five years in Test cricket but champions like him rediscovered. And I guarantee that if he was on this tour of England, he would have scored runs. But he felt it was time to go," Ganguly told PTI.

It’s important to note that the No.4 batter Kohli scored 1096 Test runs from 33 innings at an average of 33.21 in England with two centuries and five fifties. He had an exceptional 2018 tour, accumulating 593 runs from 10 innings at 59.3 with two centuries and three half-centuries.

Though Kohli had an impressive tour, India failed to live up to the expectations in terms of the series as they lost by 1-4, as Kohli was adjudged the player of the series. However, in the following tour, he could score only 249 runs from nine innings.

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