India's Director General of Military Operations from all three services held a joint media briefing on Monday regarding 'Operation Sindoor', India's operation to fight terrorism by doing coordinated military strikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and PoJK.
During that special briefing, Lieutenant General Rajiv Ghai, the DGMO, mentioned Virat Kohli, one of cricket's greatest legends, as he announced his retirement from Tests. Kohli took to his social media to announce his decision to retire from the longest format of the game. The clip of DGMO mentioning cricket and Kohli went viral on the social sphere in no time. Here is the clip.
Calling Virat his favourite cricketer, Lt Gen Ghai said, "I was watching Virat Kohli announce his retirement from Test cricket. Like many Indians, he is my favourite cricketer."
He then drew a parallel between cricket and military operations. "Back in the 70s, during the famous Ashes series between Australia and England, two of Australia’s legendary fast bowlers—Jeff Thomson and Dennis Lillee—wreaked havoc on the English batting line-up. Their dominance was so overwhelming that the Australians came up with a saying: 'From ashes to ashes and from dust to dust, if Thommo don't get you, then Lillee surely must.' If you look closely at the layers, you’ll understand what I mean—even if you manage to get through all of them, one layer of this grid system is bound to catch you,"* he said.
Kohli is one of the greatest batters to represent India in whites. The former India captain 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* in his 123 Test outings. He is currently 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). Test legend Kohli also holds the record for most Test runs as an Indian captain with 5,864 runs in 68 matches (113 innings) at an excellent average of 54.80, including 20 centuries and 18 fifties.