Leaving the cricketing world in awe, Virat Kohli announced he is hanging up his boots in the longest format of cricket. His Test retirement came as a surprise after Rohit Sharma’s shocker, as the Indian Test captain, too, announced to call it a day in red ball cricket. With reactions coming in from all parts of the world, Cheteshwar Pujara, who has seen Kohli from close while playing 93 Tests together, breaks down what makes the Delhi batter so special and why Test is the ultimate format for Kohli.
“He paid a lot of attention to Test format in the era where all the youngsters were looking to play more of white-ball cricket. For Virat, the ultimate format of the game was Test cricket and for that, he worked really hard,” said Pujara to ESPNcricinfo.
Kohli is also credited for bringing discipline and raising the fitness standards in the team. Under his captaincy, India were the No. 1 ranked team for over 42 months and won the Test mace multiple times.
“When he started leading the team from 2015 onwards, that’s the time when he brought in the fitness culture in the Indian team. All the teams were trying to work hard on their fitness, but in the Indian team, the fitness had to improve, and that was the time when the shift did come in,” said Pujara.
During the same time, India under Kohli, from a batting dominant side, shaped up as a lethal bowling attack unit with the likes of , , , , and . “The number of fast bowlers who came into the Indian team at that time also had to work on their fitness. The entire team started working on the fitness and at the same time, Virat paid a lot of attention to the Test format and he wanted the team to be one of the best in the world,” Pujara said.
