Both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli recently announced their sudden retirements from Test cricket and left behind a massive void to be filled in the Indian team. Both the players had brilliant careers in the longest format and gave major contributions with the bat in some of the side's most famous victories.
However, for former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar, there is no comparison between the duo in red-ball cricket as Kohli is far ahead of Rohit. In a video that Manjrekar shared on his official Instagram account, he referred to a statement of newly-appointed India Test captain Shubman Gill, who mentioned the pressure of filling the void left by Rohit and Kohli in India's Test team.
Manjrekar believes Kohli is a far better player than Rohit in red-ball cricket
This didn't sit right with Manjrekar, who compared the Test records of both the stalwarts and stated that while they may be comparable in white-ball formats, Kohli is easily the better player when it comes to Tests.
“Right recently, Shubman Gill made a statement, India’s new test captain about how he is now going to feel the pressure of the absence of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in the England season, the Test series there. And it stirred up the bee in my bonnet, which has been there for a while. It’s not so much about the statement, but the fact that Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli tend to get clubbed together," Manjrekar said in the video.
“We even have a term for them, RoKo. I can understand it in white-ball cricket; there’s some comparison, and they’re comparable players. Although there’s an argument there as well, but that’s for a later time. When it comes to red-ball cricket, there’s absolutely no comparison between the two. And I will never ever put them in the same bracket. Just to give you some numbers, so you don’t have to take my word for it," he added..
Manjrekar pulled out the stats of Kohli and Rohit in Test matches held in SENA countries and pointed out how the latter only has one ton in the conditions while the former has multiple centuries under his name on the same pitches.
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“When it comes to SENA countries, the true test of a batter, Virat Kohli has got 12 hundreds. 30 Test 100s as well. Rohit Sharma in SENA countries, just the one against England at Oval 2021. He’s played over 100 innings, just one hundred in SENA countries. And the average now is 40," Manjrekar stated.
He even claimed that if Rohit did participate in the upcoming five-match Test series against England, then his average in the format would have dropped in the 30s and added that Kohli is in a different league in comparison to the 38-year-old in red-ball cricket.
“And I dare say, had he continued playing or had he gone to England, that average would have dropped in the 30s. I can’t be absolutely sure, but that would be my educated guess. So, when it comes to Test cricket, please, red-ball cricket, Virat Kohli is in a different league when you compare him with Rohit Sharma. This comparison in red-ball cricket between Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli and putting them in the same bracket, I say, Roko, stop that,” he concluded.
The Indian team's upcoming Test assignment against England will be commencing from June 20 and the first Test will be contested at Headingley in Leeds. The series will also mark the beginning of the new World Test Championship cycle, making it heavily important for both the sides.