'When Root Scores, My Mind Goes to Kohli'

'When Joe Root gets hundreds or gets runs, or Steve Smith, Kane Williamson, my mind goes to Virat Kohli with a sense of disappointment and a little bit of sadness.'

Every time Joe Root or Steve Smith scores big in Test cricket, Sanjay Manjrekar says his thoughts drift to Virat Kohli -- and not without a sense of disappointment.

India's most successful Test captain may have chosen to move on from the format he cherished most, but Manjrekar believes Kohli walked away too soon, without attempting a final comeback.

Kohli, 37, brought the curtain down on his Test career last year following a dismal tour of Australia, where he managed just 194 runs across 10 innings -- more than half of which came in a single knock in Perth.

The decision came as a shock given Kohli's long-standing love for red-ball cricket and his status as India's most successful Test captain.

Despite being part of the celebrated Fab Four, Kohli retired with 9,230 runs from 123 Tests at an average of 46.85, falling short of the 10,000-run milestone he had once identified as a personal goal.

While he continues to amass runs in ODIs, Manjrekar remains unconvinced by the idea of prioritising one-day cricket over Tests.

'Well, as Joe Root attains new heights in Test cricket, my mind goes to Virat Kohli. He's walked away from Tests, and it's unfortunate that in the five years that he struggled before retiring, that he didn't quite put his heart and soul into finding out the problems as to why he was averaging 31 for five years in Tests.

'That is for another time as to what he could have done. But I just feel sad that people like Joe Root and Steve Smith, Kane Williamson are really making a name for themselves in Test Cricket,' Manjrekar posted on his Instagram handle.

'It was okay, Virat Kohli just walked away from cricket, retired from all cricket. But that he's chosen to play one day cricket actually disappoints me more, because this is a format which for a top-order batter, I've said before as well, is the easiest format.'

Kohli's struggles in Tests between 2020 and 2025 were well documented. Once averaging close to 50 across formats, his Test numbers dipped sharply as he went nearly three years without a century.

Manjrekar believes Kohli never fully addressed his technical issues -- particularly deliveries outside the off stump, which accounted for all nine of his dismissals in his final series in Australia.

As Kohli faded, his Fab Four peers surged ahead. Root recently registered his 41st Test century and is closing in on Sachin Tendulkar's all-time run tally, while Smith continues to grind out runs in the ongoing Ashes series. Kohli, meanwhile, carries the label of a former Test cricketer.

'The format that really tests you is first, obviously, Test cricket, and T20 cricket has its different challenges. The other thing is because he's so fit, supremely fit, you feel even more that he could have maybe continued his fight, you know, to get back into form, even if he was left out of a series, he could have maybe gone down to first-class cricket, played in Australia, England, more matches in India, tried to make another comeback,' added Manjrekar.

'That could have made me truly happy. Obviously, that's his call, his choice. But yeah, when Joe Root gets hundreds or gets runs, or Steve Smith, Kane Williamson, my mind goes to Virat Kohli with a sense of disappointment and a little bit of sadness, because he cared so much for Test Cricket, didn't he?'