‘Difficult to pick him for England series’ – Indian journalist makes startling claim that Virat Kohli could be dropped next

Former Indian skipper Virat Kohli is walking thin ice, according to Indian journalist Kushan Sarkar. Sarkar put out a tweet that said that failures, Kohli was set to announce his Test retirement after the Oval Test against England. His repeated failures, though, have made it difficult for the selectors to pick him. 

Sarkar wrote, “Virat Kohli is making it increasingly difficult for the Ajit Agarkar-led national selection committee to pick him for the England series. There's a theory doing rounds that he will retire at Oval after fifth Test. But to do it his own way, he needed runs and now Oval retirement seems a distant dream.”

Virat Kohli is making it increasingly difficult for the Ajit Agarkar-led national selection committee to pick him for the England series. There's a theory doing rounds that he will retire at Oval after fifth Test. But to do it his own way, he needed runs and now Oval retirement…

— Kushan Sarkar (@kushansarkar) January 3, 2025

Rohit Sharma opted out of the final Test match at the SCG after his constant run of failures. The focus then moved to Kohli, who hasn’t scored many in the last three games of the series. The 36-year-old was out for just 17 runs when he was yet again caught behind the wicket to Scott Boland. 

Is time running out for Virat Kohli in the Test format?

After the 3-0 loss at home to New Zealand, reports came out that BCCI will start to phase out the seniors. The first bit of phasing out saw R. Ashwin take his retirement as an international player after the Brisbane Test match. Rohit Sharma’s non-inclusion in the SCG Test match means that his time as a Test player is more or less done. 

Virat Kohli began with scores of 5 and 100 during the Perth Test match that made the fans believe he was back in form. Since the century, Kohli has scored 79 runs from 6 innings with an average of 13.2 and a best of 36. In this series alone, Kohli has been out 7 times caught behind the wicket. 

Things could have been worse for the former India skipper if the third umpire hadn’t come to his defence in the SCG Test. On his very first ball, Kohli edged the ball to Steve Smith, who was standing in the slips, and scooped the catch and relayed it to his teammate. The TV umpire reckoned the ball had hit the ground to save Kohli from a first-ball duck. 

Steve Smith, during his chat with Isa Guha for the host broadcaster, said, “100%. No denying it whatsoever, 100%. But the umpire has made the decision. We'll move on." Former umpire Simon Taufel, during his chat on Channel 7, said, “I think you described it very well when you said that depending upon which side of the fence you sit on, you could probably build a case for either decision to be given.”

The former legendary umpire also added, “Listening to Joel Wilson's language there, where he said the fingers were underneath the ball and then he's seen it roll on to the ground, by his own language he is telling us that he believes he's seeing that ball on the ground.”