India batting icon Virat Kohli's latest Twitter post sent the internet into a frenzy on Saturday and even led to his retirement rumors on the influential messaging app. Virat Kohli, who is at present resting at home alongside other senior players like skipper Rohit Sharma, vice-captain KL Rahul, spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, and pacer Mohammed Shami took to the microblogging platform to share a picture of his match-winning knock against Pakistan in the recently concluded T20 World Cup in Australia.
“October 23rd 2022 will always be special in my heart. Never felt energy like that in a cricket game before. What a blessed evening that was,” Virat Kohli wrote in the caption of the post.
The Delhi-born cricket star's post, however, made fans wonder if he was set to retire from T20Is. Virat Kohli's former India teammate and the legendary skipper MS Dhoni similarly announced his retirement two years ago on Instagram.
https://twitter.com/Legspiner3/status/1596372316417822720
Pehle mujhe laga the dreaded R word aane wala tha 😭😭
— SoN! 🦋💫 || Ignore & Fly 😌🥂 (@fanatic_devil16) November 26, 2022
Bhai aisi photo daal ke matt likha karo kuch. Heartbeat badh jaati ke retirement toh announce nai kardi kahin 😭
— Jahazi (@Oye_Jahazi) November 26, 2022
Dara diya Ffs
— Aditi. (@Sassy_Soul_) November 26, 2022
Virat Kohli smacked a splendid 82 off 53 deliveries to help the Men in Blue to a famous victory at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground. Virat Kohli's innings were termed the greatest T20 knock by former Australian captain Greg Chappell and several other legends of the game.
Calling Virat Kohli, the greatest Indian batter of his time, Greg Chappell said his innings legitimized T20 cricket.
“The Bhagavad Gita is the holy book which is the synthesis of Hinduism. Literally translated, it means “the song by God”. Kohli played an innings that was as close to a ‘song by god’ as has ever been played in T20 cricket,” Greg Chappell wrote in his column for the Australian newspaper “Sydney Morning Herald”.
“Like a cat playing with a new skein of wool, Kohli teased then expertly picked apart an excellent Pakistan bowling attack until it lay unravelled, spent and exposed on the green carpet of the MCG.” “….It was an innings that showcased the art of batting like no other that I have seen in a lifetime of watching cricket,” former Team India coach added.
“Ironically, it was also the innings that legitimised T20 cricket as, dare I say it, an art form, more than any that I have seen in the past 15 years. Nobody can dismiss T20 cricket as simply entertainment ever again,” Greg Chappell noted.
“None of the greats of bygone eras could have dismembered of an opponent so brutally without compromising the niceties of the art of batting than Kohli did last Sunday night,” he further said.
“Kohli is the most complete Indian batsman of my time. Only the greatest of champions has the courage and the intelligence to transport their imagination beyond the mortal plane. Kohli has that. Perhaps only Tiger Pataudi has come close to transcending a similar stratosphere,” Greg Chappell explained.
Greg Chappell even put forward the example of the legendary Adam Gilchrist to state that Virat Kohli’s batting against Pakistan was even more enjoyable than the left-hander’s heroics in the past.
“I can think of many of the best hitters in the modern game who could have pulled off a similar victory, and probably have, but none has ever done it with pure batting skills in the manner that Kohli did against Pakistan,” he said.
“Only Adam Gilchrist has come close in the past, but this was even more esoteric than some of his most sublime efforts. It was simply impossible to look away. It gave me immense pleasure as it was played by one of the staunchest supporters and exponents of Test cricket of the past 145 years,” the Australian great illustrated.
“This was the day that T20 cricket came to maturity, and the nail-biting game was played between two of the younger nations of the long form of the game in front of 90,000 rapturous fans, most of whom were thousands of miles from the land of their birth,” Greg Chappell mentioned.
“We have known for some time that Kohli is in a rare class, but this was done against the backdrop of a pretty lean run during the last few years by his lofty standards. Not many are going to have to go through it in the glare Virat has. Everyone has had an opinion; most of it has been centred on his eyes and/or his technique as having waned in some way. As someone who has been down that track, I was pretty sure this wasn’t the case,” he commented.
“It is likely the best T20 innings of his career, and it may also be one of the most satisfying in any format. He looked completely at home. He was in his element,” Greg Chappell concluded.
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