BCCI’s strong push to convince Virat Kohli

The Board of Control for Cricket in India BCCI has called on a highly influential cricketing figure to meet the talismanic batter Virat Kohli in the coming days and convince him to reverse his potential Test cricket retirement plansKohli has reportedly communicated his desire to retire from Test cricket to the BCCI ahead of the important fivematch series in England starting on June 20 But the BCCI had urged Kohli to reconsider his decision citing the important assignments coming up in the format including the England tourEngland tour is keyldquoYes to convince Virat Kohli to reconsider his potential Test cricket retirement plans the BCCI has called on a highly influential cricketing figure to speak to the talismanic cricketer in the coming days and convince him to prolong his career in the longest format especially considering the tour of England is around the cornerrdquo sources told IANSIndiarsquos fivematch Test match tour of England also marks the start of a new World Test Championship WTC cycle for them This agency also understands that thoughts were initially over Kohli not willing to be a part of the team for the England tour but it came to light that he has contemplated leaving the format which he always loved playing as known from his vocal words around it while captaining India in 68 TestsldquoThat highly influential cricketing figure was also the one who spoke to Rohit Sharma as well although that was a completely different scenario as he later announced his retirement from Tests Though Kohli is a person who doesnrsquot really change his mind quickly the highly influential cricketing figurersquos words may have some influence on his decisionmaking and thoughts over his Test cricket futurerdquo added sourcesLack of experience in teamSince his debut in the format in 2011 Kohli has played 123 Tests amassing 9230 runs at an average of 4685 But if Kohli doesnrsquot retract over thoughts on retiring from Tests then India will be woefully short of experience on their Test tour of England in the absence of him and RohitWhile Rohitrsquos retirement will make KL Rahul and Shubman Gill the most experienced toporder batters Kohlirsquos potential ending of his Test career will mean Rishabh Pant becomes the most experienced batter in the middleorder Gill meanwhile has been widely cited as the frontrunner to be the next Test skipper in a race that also has Rahul Pant and Jasprit Bumrah as other candidatesBoth Kohli and Rohit had retired from T20Is after India won the Menrsquos T20 World Cup last year in Barbados If Kohli does go on to retire from Tests the veteran duo will then be available to play for India only in ODI cricketMeanwhile IANS also understands that the India lsquoArsquo squad for the tour of England is expected to be selected by the Ajit Agarkarled selection committee in the next few days India lsquoArsquo are set to play three fourday games against England Lions starting on May 30 in Canterbury4685Virat Kohlirsquos average across 123 Tests scoring 9230 runsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoeveratOptionskeyd0ddb8ef8f1a62a8cdd22fac27fc5ea7formatiframeheight90width728params