Ex-selector Raju calls Kohli a trendsetter

Virat Kohli’s decision to end his glittering 123-Test career ahead of the England tour and within five days of Rohit Sharma’s announcement to quit the red-ball format was met with mixed reactions.

Former India left-arm spinner and national selector Venkatapathi Raju, in whose tenure under the chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar, Kohli broke into the senior team after leading India to a U-19 World Cup triumph in 2008 told mid-day on Monday, “VK18 will be missed.”

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Raju added: “We all will miss watching Kohli and his aggression on the field, his scintillating Test hundreds, something we have been used to watching for many years. Kohli has been an advocate of Test cricket. He has been speaking so passionately about Test cricket and its importance that all the contemporary cricketers agreed with him and he earned everybody’s respect for his stance on the longest format.”

Asked how this will impact the Indian team, which will have a new captain and which doesn’t have two senior-most players in Kohli and Rohit to fall back upon for guidance, the 55-year-old Raju, who took 93 wickets in 28 Tests and 63 scalps in 53 ODIs between 1990 and 2001, said: “Just to guide the youngsters, they will be missed. When Kohli came into the scene, he had seniors like Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, VVS Laxman to guide him. It was the learnings from these established seniors that took him far and see where he has ended up.”

Raju termed Kohli as a “trendsetter.” “The way he changed his lifestyle to succeed in international cricket, the fitness levels he brought into the team, he also started the trend of growing a beard that every cricketer even at the state level followed,” Raju said.

This article first appeared on Mid Day