Former Indian batter Mohammad Kaif has asserted that the Indian talismanic batter Virat Kohli wasn’t happy with the environment in the Indian team and decided to walk away from the longest format of the game.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Kaif reckoned that Kohli felt he wasn’t getting enough importance and backing in the red-ball format and hence decided to bid adieu to the format. Notably, Kohli retired from Tests ahead of the England tour last year.
“When I look at his interviews about this, I feel like there is some disappointment on his face. Even if his form was bad, you are talking about Virat Kohli. He has had bad phases in ODIs as well at times. From his interviews, it looks like he was not happy with the environment. It seemed that he felt like he was not getting importance and backing, and the people within had no faith in him. I still think if he had continued, he would have definitely made a comeback. He is known for comebacks,” Kaif said on his YouTube channel.
Further, Kaif gave an instance of how Kohli made an exceptional comeback after scoring two consecutive ducks during the Australia ODI series last year. Speaking about his Test record, Kohli played 123 games, amassing 9230 runs at an average of 46.85 with 30 centuries and 31 half-centuries.
“If he had been removed after those two ducks in Australia, would we have been able to praise him or look at such knocks from him now? I can understand if it is a new player. But this is Virat Kohli. You cannot apply the same things to him as you do to others. Your form will go bad. No one is a machine, and this is not a video game,” he added.
