Virat Kohli Test Retirement Special: Thank You Virat

[00:00:01] Hello, and welcome to this week's episode of the Edges and Sledges Cricket Podcast. I'm your host Ashwin. I'm joined by DJ. And what is a little bit of a somber day for Indian cricket? I mean, listen, this is the middle of the IPL season. The IPL has been paused because of the escalation and tensions between India and Pakistan. We're not even actually here to talk about that. They've just actually, right before we hit record, announced the schedule for it to come back. It'll start Saturday, May 17th. But we're not here to talk about that because I said,

[00:00:31] it's a somber day for Indian cricket because Virat Kohli has announced his retirement from Test cricket. DJ, it's late at night for you. Life has been crazy. You're running out low sleep, but you are here because of how big a day that is. How are you feeling, man? Yeah. I mean, it's been quite the last couple of weeks, right? Obviously, the IPL has been suspended and then reactivated. And we'll talk about it, but Rohit Sharma has announced it.

[00:01:03] His retirement from Indian Test cricket to concentrate on ODI. There's been other things that have obviously been dominating the headlines mostly, because obviously we all have family back home.

[00:01:20] And I hope everybody is now feeling a little bit less tense and stressed. But it's funny, actually. And I was thinking about it. It is a somber day, as you say. But it's not like when Sachin retired that we were never going to see him again. So that was like end of an era, childhood ending, all of that stuff. Because Kohli is only retired from one format. It's not even like...

[00:01:48] And for me, I was actually much sadder. And it was probably February 22, I want to say, when Kohli was sacked unceremoniously from the Indian Test captaincy. That really felt like we had lost something that day. And maybe that says a lot about what I think about Virat Kohli. Of course, he's a great batter and all of that stuff.

[00:02:13] And he had his peak in the 2018, 2019, 2020, kind of that time. But for me, the lasting legacy of Kohli, and a lot of people have said that, are his memories as a test captain. It's the... Let's give them 60 overs of hell. Let's... Shanta Kheleinge. Whole nation after one, guys. Why don't you look after yourself?

[00:02:41] If you don't give me respect, I'm not going to respect you. Flipping the crowd off as a young player in 2011 in the Sydney Test match. And then, kind of his last act as a Test cricketer was also opening out his pockets and showing the Sydney cricket ground that he didn't have sandpaper in it. So, it's like life has almost gone full circle, right, for him. And it's... I mean, we can talk about his great innings and all of that stuff.

[00:03:07] But the mark that Kohli has left on the longest format of the game, which, frankly, has been in danger for a long time, right? I think that's the mark that's indelible. The aggression, the passion, the backing the fast bowlers, going for the win in all costs, like... Kind of standing on the Lord's balcony and spraying himself at Dio before declaring... Those are the memories that Virat Kohli has left us with, right? And it's incredible.

[00:03:36] It's... That's what I'm, like, going to be very sad about. Like, come June the 20th, India's going to be playing Test cricket again. There's going to be new faces. But there's not going to be that guy jumping up and down every ball in the slips. That's the energy that Kohli brought to the Test game. Like, he would celebrate wickets harder than his own teammates or the bowlers. It was just... I mean, I don't think we're ever going to see anything like it ever again, to be honest.

[00:04:03] And, sorry, the last thing I should say is that... And, sorry, I've told... It's been a long monologue. That's great. In his Instagram post, what really struck me, right, is that he called it the baggy blue. Yeah. And, of course, that's like... Yeah. So, he talks about the baggy blue, which, of course, that's like a play on the baggy green. And he was the most Australian of all Indians. And they hated him. And then they loved him. And then they hated him. And they booed him.

[00:04:32] And he visualized that. And he drove himself off that energy. And he won series in Australia. So, look. All hail the king, man. Long live the king. Yeah. Listen, we can spend forever talking about it. And you did a really good job summarizing kind of how you're feeling and how many of us are feeling today. There's an element... And I want to talk a little bit about favorite things and favorite moments and stuff. But you talked about a lot of them. And the magic of him...

[00:04:59] You know, for somebody who doesn't understand our game or doesn't know it, you look from the outside. I think he finished just shy of 10,000 runs. Fourth on the list of Indian top-run scorers. Right? Sachin Dravidgavis. Yeah. So, fourth. You know, ended up with 30 centuries, 31 half centuries. Like, it's an excellent record. But the Kohli that was on track till, call it, late 2019, is not the Kohli that we saw the last five years.

[00:05:27] So, DJ, I guess, before we get into the rest of the time on the positive memories, what do you think spurred in the last little bit this? The reaction, the timing, etc. Right? Because we had some rumors come out that Kohli was considering it. Then we heard the BCCI was likely to try to ask him to stay on, at least through the England series. Because we have five tests in England now without two incredibly experienced test cricketers. Now they're saying, hey, it happened the opposite that the BCCI have indicated to Kohli, that they don't want him to be in the future plans, etc.

[00:05:57] So, without getting into the rumor mills, do you have a theory on what happened? Is it, listen, kids are getting older. He's thinking about family life. He wants to prioritize 2027. Play one more lift. The one trophy he hasn't really gotten. Because he knows, we didn't make the World's Championship Finals, right? So, he knew he's not playing probably another full cycle. So, the IPL and the ODI, I guess he does have an ODI World Cup. But the IPL, and he wanted to get an ODI World Cup.

[00:06:24] So, anyway, what do you think spurred the decision at the timing that it did, by the way? I mean, one can only speculate, right? But I think, look, the last two test series India played weren't great for either of those players. Yeah. Rohit as well is Kohli. And just to be clear, sorry. The mode of his dismissal. Just to build on that, his last ever test in India against New Zealand, he made two single-digit scores. Yeah.

[00:06:53] In a 3-0 loss at home to New Zealand, which none of us had dreamed possible. Yeah. And if you remember the modes of dismissal, there was one hit, single to mid-on and run in a complete panic. You remember that? I mean, who can't? Yeah. There was a run out of Yasha Swigoli. Yasha Swigoli and Yasha Swigaiswal tells you how Steve deprived him. Yasha Swigaiswal at Melbourne thinks would have been very different in that first innings.

[00:07:20] So, I think, as you say, it was those last two series which really told him that maybe he didn't have that willingness to bounce back from another disappointment. I think Australia really, it lay heavy on him. Yeah. That loss. I think there's something to be said for, he won, let's call it two series in Australia. He won one, he won, he was part of one.

[00:07:47] And then to lose in that manner, I don't know, it was, it definitely weighed on him. And you couldn't tell it weighed on him. And it's just, it's hard to see. But we will always remember, DJ, you flip back. I think you said it really well, is that moment of him losing his captaincy felt like more of a moment. Because I think for the rest of my life, I will remember Virat Kohli, the test batter, no question.

[00:08:13] I will 100% remember Virat Kohli, the test captain. Are there players like that you could think of? I don't remember. I'm trying to think of who was at the pinnacle of his batting and at the pinnacle of his craft and Fab Four and all of this stuff. But actually will be remembered more for being, more for the leadership than the actual batting. Does that feel fair? I think it's been colored a little bit by the last five years, right? Fair. Yeah.

[00:08:43] I think he averages something like 30, 35 in those last five years. I think less. Whereas he was averaging 55 as a career average before that. And he's going to finish at 46, right? At 46, which, I mean, that's not an all-time great average, to be honest with you. And it's tough, right? COVID interrupted a lot of good years. Australia, he didn't play on those good batting tracks in the 2020. He played like one innings in Adelaide.

[00:09:12] He got 70, got run out by Rahane. But, I mean, what I'll remember of him is the 593 he got in 2018 in England after bouncing back from averaging 13. That series. Yeah. Great series. But, again, that was symptomatic of his captaincy. We lost it 4-1. But all the talk was, can Kohli's India come back from being 2-1 down and all of that stuff? And it was just...

[00:09:41] We were seventh in the world in the world of test cricket when he took over as captain. We were number seven. I remember him celebrating and us celebrating a win in Sri Lanka in about 2015. Yep. This is after we lost the first test at Gaul after Chandni Moll scored 160. And Kohli... Kohli... I remember him holding... I think we were running a blog then. I remember Kohli holding up his stump. And it was just like, yes, he's done it.

[00:10:10] That was an overseas win for us, I should remember then. And now we're sitting here disappointed that, oh, we didn't beat Australia full strength in a Bordogavaskar trophy last year. It's bonkers. That's how far we've come during the Kohli era. And as you say, it felt like something was taken away from us. That aggression that he brought to the team. No... Like, we're going to look you in the eye and we're going to take no steps back. I'm the captain. I'm going to take the flack for all of it. I'm going to distract.

[00:10:39] I'm going to absorb all the headlines, all the eyeballs. I mean, what a guy. What a guy. So let's talk about him as a skipper a little bit. But before we get into any specific moments, you know, there was... He took on the reins of being captain at a time of... It's very easy to say this. But at a time of kind of critical importance in how Indian... The next generations would define Indian cricket. And what I mean by that is it could have very easily become... We are an IPL-first country.

[00:11:08] Varun's still convinced the IPL will become 12, 13, 15, 16 weeks rule long. And maybe it will someday. But it could have happened. But it could have... Listen, maybe this time it'll feel longer because of the hiatus. But it could have happened already. It could have happened already that more and more and more kids are focused on playing for the IPL. But not as a stepping stone to playing for it. And yet you look at the... Let's pick Jaswal because he's probably the youngest, most recent, right? Like played the IPL. Kind of built a name for himself.

[00:11:37] Now talks about the dream of playing test cricket, right? That could have been very different in 2014 when Captain Kohli took the reins because of what was important. And so there's a long preamble to say Kohli is a big part of the reason test cricket is still the pinnacle of formats in India, at least. And linked to that, DJ, talk a little bit about what he did for the art of fast bowling.

[00:12:05] Because we were not prior to Kohli the force that we became. And it's because of the investment he put in, right? Is that fair to say? Or am I over-glamorizing him because we're emotional? No, absolutely not. He said, I want... It was kind of like the Clive Lloyd moment. Yeah, it was kind of like Clive Lloyd. We've been battered in Australia by Lily and Thompson.

[00:12:28] If you watch Fire in Babylon, it's quite a clear inflection point where he goes, I'm going to go and find myself four fast bowlers. And clearly Kohli said, we can't win abroad with Stuart Biddy playing the third seamer. It doesn't work that way. But that's what... Stuart Biddy was the third seamer in 2014 and no disrespect to him, right? That's the series in which Kohli's average was 13.5. And he's like, so I have to play Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad.

[00:12:58] And we... Yeah, fine. Zaheer. Yeah, there's no Zaheer. Ishan Sharma took those seven wickets. But then I get Stuart Biddy bowling my third seamer. And there was a point at which Mahindra Singh Dhoni bowled in one of these series that... Maybe it was a previous series. But how long did it take for me to mention MS? 13 minutes. That's pretty good in a Kohli tribute. In a Kohli tribute. While the FBI is on hiatus. It's not bad.

[00:13:26] Yeah, and talk about like... And I was the first one to say that Dhoni was not a test captain. Yeah. Dhoni was a one-day genius. Limited over genius. White ball genius. Kohli was like, I've seen MS do it. I know that template. I'm going to do it my way. Which is the song that he chose. The Frank Sinatra song. In test cricket. And I mean, that's what he did. He said, I'm going to play five batters. A keeper who can bat. I'm going to get...

[00:13:55] And then the rest of my team is going to be bowlers. Maybe comprising of a hard day Pandya as well. So, he went four... There was... I think Joburg was one of them where he said, No, we're going to play on this dangerous pitch. And he kind of mocked the South Africans for not wanting to play on that pitch. He's like, Dean Elgar, are you soft? And Dean Elgar is one of the guys who's... One of the hardest players in world cricket. And he was kind of like asking Dean Elgar, are you soft? So, that template to... Outside of India.

[00:14:24] Of course, in India, he had Jadeja, Ashwin, Akshar Patel. And he had like Jayant Yadav. All of these guys doing his bidding. But outside of India was where his... He said like... I think there was a press conference where he said, My smile will be much wider when we win overseas. And he made a plan. And he executed that plan. And he had the personnel. And those guys would run through a brick wall for him, right?

[00:14:55] So... Yeah, I think he's... That's what a leader does for you, right? He lets you believe. He delivers on that. Which was, again, 2018 Australia. Was delivering on that belief. Leading from the front, right? Constantly scoring runs. And again, that's what was different for us in the last three or four years. But always leading from the front. And then, DJ, I'm not kidding when I say like... Kids who grew up in our generation watching test cricket for India would wait for the batting. And that's true. And again, I'm not saying goalie the batter is not great.

[00:15:25] He's incredible. We'll come talk about him in a second. But in the last six or seven years of watching test cricket, I wait for the quick bowling spells. I wait to be able to watch Bumrah and Shami. Then Siraj come on. Ishanth till not long ago. Like, that is what he's done. That is his legacy. And that kids, you know, who used to want to be batters first, maybe spinners second, and then a long, distant third, you'd have quick bowling in India. You now have kids who want to become Bumrah. Australian four-year-olds are imitating Bumrah's action, right?

[00:15:54] It doesn't happen without prioritizing the art and without the captain kind of setting that tone. Yeah. And it's also... It's putting aside personal milestones, personal glory as batters. I mean, he asked for those pitches in India. Yeah. He could have asked for pitches where he could have... He's got the most number of double hundreds for India in test cricket. He's got seven double hundreds. Yeah. So, he could have said, look, I quite like scoring runs. Why don't you lay out a nice batting track for me and my friends and we'll just score some runs?

[00:16:25] He said, no, I'm okay for us to have shitty averages at home and we'll win test matches. We'll win tests abroad. Yeah. Yeah. And so, again, it's symptomatic. He's just short of 10,000 runs. He could have stuck on. He could have had a farewell at home. He could have had a test match in Delhi. I mean, like, why not? So, it's going to be hard to choose from. We did this, I think, when we talked T20 high innings. But as you've been reflecting, thinking about the day, thinking about the moments,

[00:16:51] I was going to ask you for your favorite Kohli innings. But instead, I'll just make it a little broader. Test innings, obviously. But I'll make it a little broader and ask you about your favorite Kohli moment from his test career. So, it doesn't have to be an innings, if you will. What stands out? I can go first. There's a lot of moments, though. There's a lot. I think you should do better.

[00:17:20] And then you should also do moment. Because they're two different things, right? You should do innings. So, for me, the answer was, you sort of mentioned it, but it was 2014 Adelaide. And it was century. I think you got century in both innings, didn't you? Yeah, you got 141 in the second inning. And there was just a moment. I just distinctly remember this moment of being super nervous about what the post-MSD future would hold.

[00:17:47] And then this sense of calm just setting in on me, like, yes, this is the guy. And so, there's just that showing up to Phil. Maybe, like you said, MSD was not the greatest test captain, but he was already a huge figure, a legend, and an incredible cricket captain, right? So, we didn't actually, in hindsight, you can look back and say MSD wasn't the best test captain and all that. But at the time, he was our captain, right? There was no concept of multiple captains for multiple formats, really, at this point.

[00:18:17] So, filling MS Dhoni's shoes, Virat steps up, makes 141 in his first innings, makes it, I think he met another century in the second innings, if I'm remembering correctly. And suddenly, you're just thinking, okay, now I can breathe easy, because Indian cricket is in good hands. I don't know. That moment to me was just, it was just very memorable. And maybe it wasn't his best inning, but that's why I changed it to moment, if you will. That was a great knock.

[00:18:45] And he was not only filling in for MSD, he was filling in for Sachin Tandulkar, I think, for the first time at number four for India. And for many of us, that was unimaginable. Was that his first knock at the end? Because Adelaide had become the first test after Philips. I think it may have been the first time he batted at four for India. Maybe there was a couple of, it was definitely the first overseas test that he batted at four, because Sachin did that in 2013, right? Yeah.

[00:19:14] So, now that's a great shout. I mean, chasing against Nathan Lyon, Murali Vijay and him, that was a great partnership. But the biggest part of it for me was the reassurance that he gave a billion and a half people, or it was 1.2 billion at the time, that I can lead. I got this, you guys. Do you know what the first ball was of that? Do you remember the first ball of that test? I don't remember. That he faced. That he faced. I don't remember his first ball. So, the whole Phil Hughes thing had happened. Yeah.

[00:19:43] Mitchell Johnson bowls him a bouncer. He gets hit in the head first ball. Mitchell Johnson obviously comes up really concerned. I do remember this, yeah. And Kohli just waves him away. Yeah. I mean... So good. Yeah, that was... Yeah, it was quite an emotional and... Yeah, quite a memorable test that much. That one. Yeah. Amazing. For me, I mean, there are a lot of moments, man. There are a lot of great innings. I think the 123 at Perth was incredible. He got 158 Centurion.

[00:20:13] Really good against South Africa. He's got double hundreds. He's... There was one, I think, which was against England on a Saturday at the Wankede. And I can still remember Nasser Hassan saying, it's Super Saturday and it's King Kohli. And it was just like... He was jumping up and celebrating his double hundred. But for me, I think his greatest innings for me

[00:20:41] was Edgbaston, the 149. It was the first test of the 2018 series. It was after he had been written off as a guy who couldn't play swing bowling because Jimmy Anderson had his number. 13.4, I think he averaged in 2013, 2014, when he'd last come. He waited four years. Fixed whatever he did to fix. And by the way, sorry, if you remember this Edgbaston thing, I didn't remember it, but I've been watching clips and stuff.

[00:21:09] He, when Root got out earlier in that match, he gave him a send-off. And so when he walked out, there are like loud, audible boos from the crowd. This guy's walking out to play in England, already a little bit of a village for the English. To booing. Anyway, keep going. But I guess Jimmy Anderson, who's swinging the ball like crazy, it was magnificent. Yeah. Yeah. And that is because he'd run him out with a direct hit from mid-wicket. Yeah. On the turn. Yeah.

[00:21:38] And Joe Root had dropped his bat after winning the ODI series, which Coley had captained. And Coley just went mic drop. And there are so many of these moments that Coley just remembers. There's one with Glenn Maxwell when he does the shoulder thing. He's like, tells this guy, David Warner, or maybe Steve Smith, to stay within your limits. It's all of that. But that innings in Edgbaston, for me, it was the, it was the anti-Coley innings,

[00:22:07] where he put away his ego for the first 25, 30, 30 runs. I think there was one cover drive. I think there was one drop catch as well, by the way. David Milan dropped him off maybe Jimmy Anderson or Sam Khan. The fact that you remember this. Yeah. Yeah. David Milan dropped him. Yeah. And it could have been very different, the story. Yeah. Yeah. But it went on. He got 149 out of 274 or something like that. And he got 15 innings. We lost. But it,

[00:22:37] and that celebration was, the Coley celebrations are very expressive. Yeah. But that celebration was an outpouring of emotion, of relief. Yeah. It was kind of like when he got his first hundred in, in Adelaide in 2012, where he threw his helmet, nearly got run out, had a fight with somebody. It was like unbelievable. But I mean, yeah, for me, that was because it,

[00:23:06] and he went on then to dominate the run scoring charts in that series. And it just said, it removed any question around whether he could play swing or not. And he did not get out to Jimmy Anderson once that series. Not once. He got out to him later, but not in that series. But not in that series. Not that series. And I mean, yeah. Man, it's, reliving some of this stuff is both cathartic and good, but also hard. Like just to think about not, not ever being able to see that colleague.

[00:23:35] And we will see him. This is a little bit of the oddity. Let's be clear. There's basically four formats, right? There's the three, the three formats test ODI, T20, and then there's IPL. So he's now gone from two. He's gone from tests and T20 internationals. We will still see plenty of him in ODIs and we will see him in the IPL, not like on Saturday. So it's kind of, it's kind of weird, but also still feels a little bit momentous. DJ, I know it's super late. We're going to wrap soon.

[00:24:04] Now doesn't feel like the time, but I want to still ask anyway, just very quickly, where does Indian cricket go from here? Test cricket, right? Because now, because Rohit's out. Obviously, Kohli is retired. It's the Gautam Kambhir era, that means. And then as you start to think about who does he want to be captain, obviously, Gil is a logical kind of next choice. Who's going to bat at four? Is it going to be Gil? And then, what are you going to see very quickly before we spend more time right before the England series?

[00:24:34] What do you see this going? I mean, I think we should also acknowledge Rohit's retired from test cricket. We probably should. He had a pretty fabulous test skipper. And selfless cricketer. I mean, gave his spot up for the last... How many divas of Indian cricket would ever do that? He's not good enough. He gave it up. And with both of these guys, actually, it was knowing when to call time and people asking why rather than why not, in a way. I mean,

[00:25:03] I know we discussed on our show whether these guys should move on and three out of the four are gone. Only Jadeja is still playing. Yeah, Jadeja's probably thinking about it but now he's not allowed to leave. By the way, did you see what time Rohit posted his retirement announcement? Oh, what is 1929? This is 100% true. At 7.29 PM, he posted... Yeah, dude, there's conspiracy theories about being his main attribute. At 7.29 PM, 1929, he posted his retirement.

[00:25:32] Consider him retired. Yeah, it's amazing. What music did he use though? That I don't know. Pal do pal. Maybe it was... Ik pal ka jina. Was that ik pal ka jina? Yeah, probably. Now somebody will create an AI of him dancing to that. Pal pal dil ke pas. Yeah, we should acknowledge him. 40 run average. Solid test career. Got to captain. Got better as the years went. Except for the last series or so. But, yeah, so, help me answer the question where does Indian cricket go from here?

[00:26:03] Yes, Rikki. So, it's... Apparently, Bumrah is not going to be considered because of workload reasons for captaincy. So, we should talk captaincy first. And I find that quite unfortunate because I get... I get it. And I think it's going to be super disappointing for someone like Bumrah, right? Who's captained in Australia. Won the one test match that he captained as well. Yeah, but listen, there are going to be times after playing five matches against England, we're going to come back to Sri Lanka and you and I are going to say

[00:26:32] we should rest this guy. Like, just don't play him. Yes, so true. Suraj is a Sri Lanka machine and then play three spinners and call it a day. Right? Like, but so, I understand. I 100% see both sides but constantly chopping and changing the skipper can come with a difference. but like Kohli and Rohit also used to rest themselves for series, right? So, he may as well. Look, I think Bumrah will be very disappointed by that. And he looks at someone like a Pat Cummins and he's like, if he can do it, why not me, right? Because Pat Cummins

[00:27:02] is a fast bowler and he's a captain as well. So, yeah, so, let's just get that out there. I think Gil is fine but probably not for me and if we've had this conversation maybe two years ago, maybe even in last year after his England series, I would have been like, yeah, fine, he's developed, he's matured, he's got runs. I don't know. I'm not 100% sure about his test creds. Still, I don't know what his average is.

[00:27:32] Must be 35? Is it? What is it? Wait, Rohit's total? Gil. Gil's total. Sorry, let me look. Let's find out. Because, for me, if you're investing in the future, right, Gil is 25. Yeah. For me, if you're investing in the future, give it to Yashasvi Jaswal. He's the, he's right now, he's the number one batter on the team sheet. He's the number one batter on the team sheet. His average is 35.06, yeah, in test. Is that good enough to be an Indian cricket captain?

[00:28:01] Which Indian cricket captain last had an average of 35 point whatever? Even Ganguly when he took over was 40 plus. Azar's probably was 30 something, 38, but that was a different era of cricket. Yeah, so how are we just saying that this should happen? Like, why should Shubman Gil become the test captain? Yeah, so Jaswal is 23. Yeah. And he's played 19 matches, averages 52.8. Yeah, it's a... 52.8, man. Yeah, but 19 matches, right? Yeah, how many has Gil got? 30 plus?

[00:28:31] 40 plus? And he is, like even then, if you're averaging below... Yeah, 59 innings. I don't have the matches in here. 32. So let's say 32. That's not that many. It's 13 more test matches. Okay, look, maybe it's a small sample size, but I don't think it should be a done and dusted deal. Like, Shubman Gil is our next captain. I don't know if that's the right answer. The only other question is, do you, and we'll talk about it more later, do you find some sort of an interim solution, a temporary...

[00:28:59] KLR is the answer to that, right? It is. He's captain India before. But I don't even think he walks into the team sheet playing at Levin everywhere. Does he? Anyway, discussion for me. Well, he was opening the batting in Australia till our last test match. This is the... He's always the forever, like, is he in the team or is he not in the team? Yeah. Is he batting middle order or opening? Maybe post-Rohit, post-Koley, he does walk in because that was always the challenge, so... And then, and then Risha Pant.

[00:29:29] I think Pant and Jaswar are the top two contenders. Yeah, but Pant after... I know you can play the format, but after the season, he's had a skipper. Forget about his season as batter, by the way, for LHG. Yeah. Put that aside. And I know they're interlinked, but even just a skipper, man, he's really shown that as great a batter as he is with the red ball, he does not have captaincy chops. And I love Risha Pant. We're big fans on this. But he just doesn't have captaincy chops. All right. Yeah, so is Jaswar, to me,

[00:29:58] is someone like a Yeshaswi Jaswar a better bet than a Shuman Gil? The answer to that is yes. Jaswar is captained at the under-19 level. He's captained in India then. He's... Yeah. He's going through a bit of domestic turmoil. I don't know whether that's like... Yeah, go on. Now he wants to move back to Mumbai. Gil is more senior. He's made his debut a lot of time. I mean, he's been the prince, right? Yeah. The question is, does he just naturally slip into that role? Yeah. DJ, as we wrap,

[00:30:28] thank you for joining me first off this late. I should have started with this, but I'm not even sure if you'll hear it. But a very happy birthday to Varun who's celebrating a milestone birthday and its news has been overshadowed by Varad choosing to selfishly about his retirement. But if you're listening or watching, join us in celebrating Varun a very happy birthday. And DJ, let's just wrap with any final kind of words for either Virat or for the rest of the feds who are struggling today in dealing with the emotions?

[00:30:57] I think this is still... We're still going to see Kohli, right? I'm okay with that. Yeah. The Sachin thing was different. And I mean, to be clear, after Sachin, despite MSD and what he's done, Kohli has been the most influential cricketer of our generation, right? And I think we all started off kind of like who's this brash kid from Delhi. You realize what is

[00:31:27] the metal he has. I mean, there are obviously the stories about his dad and like him coming back to play. He just loves cricket. And he's always said that when he doesn't have the will to get up and work and do that to the hard yards, he'll quit. And frankly, after the mode of dismissal in Australia, I can see why. I really don't fancy it anymore. Like if some third-rate seamer in England starts coming boring outside often and naked, I just don't have the energy to do it anymore. Yeah,

[00:31:56] I get it. I get it. So, there'll be more Kohli, right? And we should be thankful for the memories he gave us. He gave us his captaincy was unprecedented and it was something that I think we've said it openly on the show before. He'll always be our captain, right? Like, of course, there was Dada and there was MS, but like in the test game, like, there's been nothing like him that Indian cricket have ever.

[00:32:26] And that's the loss for me. And that happened in 22. So, yeah, I agree. Well, well said. I would just echo that. Like, I'm grateful that I got to live in the years of Kohli test cricket fandom. It made, I mean, listen, you and I both done it, but wake up at three in the morning to watch series or stay up till two in the morning before work days because that's what he gave us with test cricket. We had had it as a country with ODIs and then D20s bring a level of fun and energy, but it was up and down

[00:32:56] with test cricket and he brought that back in a time when it could have very easily become a T20 country and called it a day. He brought that energy back to test cricket and I'm incredibly thankful for it, grateful that we got to do it. You know, we wish him well. Obviously, we'll see plenty of him, so it's a little bit strange saying this, but also, you know, it's the right time for him. Excited to see, hopefully, him lift an IPL trophy someday and continue to do good things in ODIs. Thank you for joining

[00:33:25] me in this Virat Kohli special episode. The IPL will resume on May 17th if the news articles I've read are true and to be believed. So it'll be interesting. I don't know how many overseas players have left already. I know Stark is gone. I don't know who's coming back. All the rumor bills will start now, but excited to see cricket back and some level of hopefully normalcy restored at the borders for all our families, loved ones who have been living in that fear. So, DJ, thanks for joining me. Virat Kohli, congratulations.

[00:33:54] Big day, big day of news. We will see you next week. This has been the Edges and Sledges Cricket podcast. Thank you for joining.