Former Indian cricket team spinner R Ashwin reignited the debate surrounding Virat Kohli‘s Test retirement once again as he revealed his conversation with the star batter. Kohli announced a shock retirement from the format just ahead of the series against England in 2025. The batter’s final Test match was against Australia in January 2025. While Kohli is still active in ODIs, there has been a lot of debate over whether he should have retired from Tests or not. Ashwin said that he had cricket left in him and even suggested that he should consider returning to Tests before adding that it will not be an ‘easy decision’.
“I’ve directly told him that he had cricket left him in Test cricket. There was something left in Test cricket, but it’s okay, honestly. There is a problem in India about the perception,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.
“He has retired, I mean, even look at it from Virat’s value and Virat’s principle, he always kept team first. Even at press conferences, he always said that the team is very important, that we have got to win. He has said all this. And for him to say okay, I’ve taken a retirement, I want to come back, it’s not an easy decision for him to make, also, but I do certainly believe he had some cricket left,” he added.
As Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) get ready to defend their Indian Premier League (IPL) title, their former captain and star batter Virat Kohli has warned the side of the challenging times ahead for them in the 19th edition of the competition, which will start on March 28.
RCB, who won their maiden IPL title in the 2025 edition, will start their defence of the title with a clash with Sunrisers Hyderabad at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on March 28. They will then take on five-time champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in another home clash on April 5 in the first leg of the competition.
The RCB have started their preparatory camp in Bengaluru on Saturday with the first training session at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.
India’s star batsman, Virat Kohli, warned his RCB teammates that the 2026 IPL season would be more challenging; since they are the defending champions, other teams would redouble their efforts to defeat them, according to reports on Saturday.
During the team’s first practice session, Kohli spoke to a small group consisting mostly of Indian players and urged them to give their absolute best in the coming weeks. “We worked really hard over the last two to three seasons to achieve what we did last year, and it’s only going to get tougher because other teams are going to come hard at us,” Kohli told his teammates.
(With IANS inputs)