“Massive blow to Test cricket” - Moeen Ali opens up on Virat Kohli’s retirement

Former England all-rounder Moeen Ali feels it is a massive blow to Test cricket, seeing Virat Kohli retire from the longest format of the game. Along with Kohli, Rohit Sharma also retired from Tests ahead of the England tour.

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It’s important to note that Rohit Sharma announced his decision to retire from the format on Wednesday, May 7. Subsequently, Kohli announced his retirement via an Instagram post on Monday, May 12.

Moeen Ali stated that after Sachin Tendulkar, Kohli was the one who filled the stadiums with his impressive gameplay and aura in the longest format of the game. Furthermore, he also hailed Kohli for his brilliant captaincy.

"It's [Kohli's retirement] a massive blow to Test cricket. He was the one pioneer, the one guy in Test cricket that always pushed the format. Amazing player, amazing career,” Moeen Ali told Sky Sports.

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"He's done so much for the game itself, especially in India. I think after Sachin [Tendulkar], he was the guy everybody comes to watch and he filled out stadiums. Amazing record, a brilliant player to watch as well. The style he played with (was) very competitive and a brilliant captain as well. A big blow to Test cricket," he added.

Moreover, Moeen felt Shubman Gill would be the perfect batter to replace Rohit and take over the captaincy. Notably, Jasprit Bumrah might not get to play all five Tests of the series as part of the workload management. 

“I think it will be Shubman Gill. Ideally they [BCCI] would want Jasprit Bumrah to captain because he is a very good captain, a good leader who has done it before,” he added.

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"But because of his injury record he might not be able to last the whole series, I think they'll give it [captaincy] to somebody who's done decently so far in Test cricket. Gill leads Gujarat Titans in IPL, so they've still got a very, very good captain, inexperienced yes but a good captain and good brain, but it'll be a challenge [in England conditions]," Moeen concluded.

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