Former India international Sanjay Manjrekar said that he was disappointed to see Virat Kohli retire from Test cricket last year.

Manjrekar was responding to Kohli saying it was an honour to compete at the “highest level” after scoring a century for Royal Challengers Bengaluru against Kolkata Knight Riders.

The former Indian international, however, suggested that the IPL was not the highest level. “ The IPL is a domestic tournament, it’s not a World Cup tournament, where you have 125 Indian players playing. So it’s not international players, there are a lot of raw bowlers,” he told Sportstar’s Insight Edge podcast.

Instead, he pointed to the longest format as the pinnacle of the game, and said he was disappointed not to see Kohli competing with the likes of Joe Root, Steve Smith, and Kane Williamson in red-ball.

“I got really disappointed when Virat Kohli quit Test cricket and gave up that fight to compete with the likes of Joe Root, Kane Williamson, Steve Smith, and that for me remains something that I’ll always be disappointed about,” he said.

“I thought he had maybe one more year of giving it a shot, to try and work out the problems that he had at the Test level. He’s not like Rohit Sharma, who’s more a white-ball phenomenon. Virat Kohli has 30 Test hundreds, so for me it should have been rather it’s an honour to be competing with people like Kane Williamson and Joe Root at Test level for somebody who’s been a champion player. He must know deep down that this is not the highest level.”

Manjrekar also said that Kohli’s technique and fundamentals “really let him down” in the years preceding his Test retirement in 2025.

“For that career to end the way it did, in the last five years of his Test career he averaged 31 (30.72). So when he talks about fundamentals it’s worked for white-ball cricket but that’s not where your fundamentals get tested. He just couldn’t find a solution for his problem outside of the last series in Australia he got out outside the off stump eight times, so it’s something that he just gave up.

Manjrekar also responded to Kohli’s comments regarding the team environment in the Indian set-up, suggesting that he may have been deflecting from his own issues. “It happens to all of us when we’re coming to the end of our careers, we start blaming a lot of other things for a problem that lies within.

“All Virat has to do is forget about the environment, forget about who wants you out, just look at your record in the last five years in Test cricket. Do you deserve to have an average of 31 in five years at the Test level? So we’re just failing and you’ve got a long rope as you deserve to get and in Indian cricket and culture you get the longest rope possible.

However, he threw his weight behind Kohli for the 2027 ODI World Cup in South Africa.

“I think he’s still good enough to be part of that tournament because he’s going to be physically fit, he’ll work hard at it. But it’s not about Virat Kohli getting a lot of runs in the World Cup like he did in the last World Cup in 2023. My expectation for somebody with his experience and his skills, ability, and stature is that I want to see Indian players with the big names and the iconic players do it in the finals.”

Published on May 18, 2026