Virat Kohli’s Test retirement remains one of the hot topics among cricket fans and experts. A part of the cricket world still believes that Kohli, who once took the Indian cricket team to new heights with his captaincy, was forced to move out of this format. Former Indian cricketer Manoj Tiwari, while talking to InsideSport, has taken the discussion further by making some explosive comments.
Tiwary strongly claimed that Virat retired from Tests due to external pressure, which is unknown in the public domain. He also disagreed with the recent comments of another former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar. Manjrekar said that Kohli left the toughest format of the game, which is Test, to play the easier format, One Day International cricket.
Manoj Tiwari opposed Sanjay Manjrekar’s opinion
After retiring from T20Is and Tests, the former India captain is currently active only in the ODI format. Kohli quit T20Is soon after winning the T20I World Cup 2024 and retired from Tests before the England vs India 5-match Test series in 2025. Kohli’s decision to retire from the Whites became more controversial as his contemporaries like Kane Williamson and Steve Smith are still active in the format.
According to Manoj Tiwari, apparently a situation was created behind the scenes to force Kohli to say goodbye to Test cricket. The former cricketer even claims that everyone knows what happened behind the scenes, hence he strongly condemned Manjrekar’s comment about Virat Kohli.
“He was forced. Just observation, my thinking is that he was forced. Because he is not the one who will say on his own that I will leave. Yes, he has taken the decision with his own words. But this is the story behind the scenes, everyone knows that man. Everyone knows what has happened.” Such an environment was forcibly created that he had to say goodbye to Test cricket. Everyone knows what happened behind the scenes,” Tiwari told InsideSport.
“Toh sab kuch jaan ne kaha ki how can you say that he left the toughest format and took the easiest format just to score his runs (After knowing everything, how can you say that he left the toughest format and is playing the easiest format for his runs)?” he adds.
Virat Kohli’s recent form in ODI
At present, 37 year old Virat Kohli is in great form for Team India in ODIs. In the last ten ODIs, the Indian batsman has scored four centuries and four half-centuries. He missed another century by only 7 runs.
In the recently concluded India vs New Zealand 3-match ODI series, he scored 124 in Indore, the third match of the competition, and scored 93 in the first game of the bilateral series. Last year he also scored a few centuries against South Africa.
Read more: Former Indian captain reeks of regret over Virat Kohli’s Test retirement
