- By Himanshu Badola
- Tue, 06 Jan 2026 03:26 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Sanjay Manjrekar slammed Virat Kohli for his decision to retire from Test cricket and continue playing the ODI format. Having retired from T20I and Test formats, Virat remains just an ODI player and will be seen in action during the three-match series against New Zealand at home, starting on January 11.
Manjrekar mentioned that he feels upset knowing that while the likes of Joe Root and Steve Smith continue to produce dominating performances, India's greatest Test captain, Virat, chose to ‘walk away’ instead of working on his problem. Virat's last Test appearance came during the Australia tour in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. He managed to score just 194 runs in 10 innings, 100 of which came in a single innings of the Perth Test.
In May last year, Virat announced his retirement from Test cricket through an Instagram post, a decision that shocked one and all, given his love for the format.
"Well, as Joe Root attains new heights in Test cricket, my mind goes to Virat Kohli. He's walked away from Tests, and it's unfortunate that in the five years that he struggled before retiring, he didn't quite put his heart and soul into finding out the problems as to why he was averaging 31 for five years in Tests. That is for another time as to what he could have done. But I just feel sad that people like Joe Root and Steve Smith, Kane Williamson are really making a name for themselves in Test Cricket," Manjrekar said on his Instagram handle.
"It was okay, Virat Kohli just walked away from cricket, retired from all cricket. But that he's chosen to play one-day cricket actually disappoints me more, because this is a format which, for a top-order batter, I've said before as well, is the easiest format."
Virat witnessed a massive struggle in Test cricket from 2020 to 2025. Once averaging 50 across formats before the Covid-19 pandemic, Kohli’s average dropped significantly as he struggled for a single Test century for almost three years. Things got more disappointing during India's tour to Australia last year as the deliveries outside off-stump, repeatedly getting out to them – all nine dismissals in his last series Down Under – is what pinches Manjrekar the most.
While Virat ended his Test career with 9230 runs from 123 matches at an average of 46.85, Joe Root, Kane Williamson and Steve Smith continue to impress with their record-breaking innings and centuries. Meanwhile, the senior Indian batter has been in incredible touch in the ODI format, having recently racked up 302 runs in three matches against South Africa and an unbeaten 74 in Australia before that.
"The format that really tests you is first, obviously, Test Cricket, and T20 cricket has its different challenges. The other thing is because he's so fit, supremely fit, you feel even more that he could have maybe continued his fight, you know, to get back into form, even if he was left out of a series, he could have maybe gone down to first-class cricket, played in Australia, England, more matches in India, tried to make another comeback," added Manjrekar.
"That could have made me truly happy. Obviously, that's his call, his choice. But yeah, when Joe Root gets hundreds or gets runs, or Steve Smith, Kane Williamson, my mind goes to Virat Kohli with a sense of disappointment and a little bit of sadness, because he cared so much for Test Cricket, didn't he?"