England fast bowling ace James Anderson has hailed Virat Kohli as one of the greatest batters to ever play Test cricket and feels that expressed confidence that India possesses a deep talent pool capable of filling up the big shoes following the retirement of veteran players. Kohli retired from Test cricket on Monday, bringing the curtains down on a glorious career with 9,230 runs in 123 matches, including a stellar 30 centuries and 31 fifties. He hung up his spikes as the fourth-most successful Test captain overall, behind Graeme Smith (53 wins), Ricky Ponting (48 wins), and Steve Waugh (41 wins).
Kohli’s 30 Test centuries make him the fourth-most successful Indian batter, behind Sachin Tendulkar (51 hundreds), Rahul Dravid (36), and Sunil Gavaskar (34). Kohli also made seven Test double hundreds, the most ever by an Indian.
The 36-year-old Indian legend shared an epic rivalry with Anderson, producing numerous unforgettable battles. He scored 305 runs against the England great at an average of 43.57 in 36 innings, while falling to him seven times.
“Great players. There will be a new captain because Sharma has retired. Kohli, one of the greatest Test batters that’s ever been. There are big shoes to fill there, but they’ve got a huge amount of talent in their squad. You just have to watch the IPL. They are bringing players into Test cricket from the IPL now who are just so attacking, aggressive, and fearless,” said Anderson on TalkSport.
Kohli’s decision came soon after Rohit Sharma made a surprising announcement to call time on his career in the longest format.
The stalwarts of Indian cricket, Kohli and Rohit, retired just over a month before India’s five-Test tour of England, which will mark the start of a new World Test Championship (WTC) cycle.
“It’s a huge year with the Ashes coming, but it is important to get some momentum going. If I’m being honest, looking back at my career, that happened too much where, 18 months out from an Ashes, the management and even the players started to look towards that and actually forget what’s in front of you. India is going to be such a tough challenge even at home. They are a strong side,” said Anderson.
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