As India and England renewed their Test rivalry on Friday, cricket afficionados finally came to terms with a harsh reality that Virat Kohli, who has had an impactful presence in the matches between these two sides over the last decade, no longer plays Test cricket.
Virat, arguably the biggest star of world cricket in recent times, called time on his career in the traditional format last month, having played 123 Tests in which he scored 9230 runs at an average of 46.85.
Ahead of the first Test at Headingley, former England captain Nasser Hussain spoke about Kohli's retirement and how the Test arena would miss him.
Hussain recalled the Lord’s Test in 2021 and Virat's 'pep talk' to fire up his players on the final morning as India thrashed the hosts and registered a memorable win.
“I was asked something by the ECB the other day, your favourite India, England moment historically and there’ve been so many. It may not be my favourite, but it’s the one that stuck with me the most, was in the huddle that last morning at Lord’s when England were trying to chase down a score," Hussain said while speaking on Sky Sports.
England were in pursuit of a 272-run target with 60 overs left and during the team huddle on the final day, Virat delivered a passionate speech, and his famous words -- "For 60 overs, they should feel hell" -- still resonate with cricket fans.
Egged on by Virat's fiery speech, pacers Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, and Ishant Sharma breathed fire and ripped England batters apart with their pace and precision as India won the game by 151 runs.
“They unleashed hell and their side became a sort of mirror image of Kohli, the character, the feistiness of Siraj, Bumrah in your face, Shami in your face. Kohli, Test match cricket is so much better when Kohli was playing," Hussain said and added that fans and experts will move on from the star Indian batter, but one can’t deny the impact he had in Tests.
“We will move on. We moved on from Gavaskar to Tendulkar to Kohli and maybe to Gill, but Kohli added so much to this game of cricket."
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