Given his fitness and way he is playing now, Kohli could have continued: Lalchand Rajput

CHENNAI: I have known Virat Kohli from 2006. We went to England, Pakistan, New Zealand, Thailand, Malaysia and Sri Lanka during my stint as the head coach of the U-19 India team. I recently met him in Dubai during the 2025 Champions Trophy. As I am the UAE coach, he requested me to make a few left-arm and leg spinners available. We provided him with three-four bowlers and he faced them in the nets. Next day he scored a century (against Pakistan).

Mostly we had personal conversations. He was enjoying his game so I was really shocked to learn about his retirement from Test cricket on Monday. But we must respect his decision, he must have some other things in his mind. But, according to me, given his fitness and the way he is playing now, if you look at his form in the IPL, he could have continued.

We have been in constant touch but so far I have not spoken to him on his decision. He must be flooded with calls and messages and I am also busy in the Netherlands as UAE is playing matches here. We have a good rapport and to be honest, he is very open to me. It showed when he approached me after not having a good tour of England in 2014. I was the head coach of the specialised batting academy of the National Cricket Academy then.

He said ‘I just wanted to come and do some batting’. We worked on a couple of things. We worked on his mental aspect, we worked on a few adjustments. Since he is a great player, he knew what needed to be done. He used to bat for hours and hours and I used to do a lot of throwdowns. Mera haath nikal jaata tha (my hands used to be tired), I used to do throwdowns for more than an hour. The main thing is that he had that urge of being a perfectionist. He always wanted to be the best. There is no second option for him.