Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) head coach Andy Flower opened up on Indian veteran Virat Kohli's Test retirement. He reckons that India will miss Kohli's energy, positivity, and aggression on the field, but also said "India are lucky" that they have lots of young talent.
Kohli announced his retirement from whites on May 12 after marking an end to an illustrious 14-year career which saw him dominate a variety of conditions, regions, and opponents, both as a batter and captain.
"I think it will have on the Indian team, not only his (Kohli's) runs, but his energy, positivity, and aggression. It is always nice having those influences in teams, where you have a few individuals that are super aggressive like he [Virat Kohli] is, in a good way. So, I think they might miss that" said Andy Flower as quoted by ANI
"This is the reality of these situations when great players move on, is that time moves on and teams move on and India are lucky in that they have lots of young talent coming through," he added.
Flower further stated that India still has experienced cricketers around, such as Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja, and felt the Indian Premier League sets young players up quite nicely for pressure situations.
"India still has some very experienced cricketers around who have played a lot of cricket. Bumrah is obviously one of them, and Jadeja is still playing. And the young boys are playing so much cricket, and the IPL sets them up quite nicely for pressure cricket," he said.
Virat Kohli has played 123 Test matches for India, where he scored 9,230 runs at an average of 46.85, with 30 centuries and 31 fifties in 210 innings and the best score of 254*. He is India's fourth-highest run-getter in the longest format of the game behind Sachin Tendulkar (15,921 runs), Rahul Dravid (13,265 runs) and Sunil Gavaskar (10,122 runs). Kohli's last Test outing came in Australia during the five-Test match series of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25, where he managed to score 190 runs.