Former Indian wicket-keeper bat Dinesh Karthik lauded Virat Kohli after the veteran batter announced his Test retirement on Monday. Karthik said Kohli belonged to the same category of world-class Indian Test batters such as Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, and Rahul Dravid.

Kohli amassed 9230 runs in 123 Test matches at an average of 46.85, including 30 centuries. In the last 69 Test innings since 2020, Kohli has managed only 2028 runs at an average of 30.72, including just three centuries.

Before 2020, Kohli accumulated 7202 runs in 141 Test innings at an average of 54.97, including 27 centuries. However, Karthik hailed Kohli for playing Test cricket with great intensity and also inflicting fear in the opposition.

“Without a shadow of a doubt. We have had some legends over the game. The Gavaskars, the Tendulkars and Virat Kohli is right up there with some of those names, Rahul Dravid and all of them. But more than what he did with the bat I think it was how he captained Team India, the kind of fear he was able to inflict in opposition but most importantly for the game of cricket the intensity with which he played across five days, that was the most admirable part,” Karthik told Sky Sports.

The RCB mentor added in an era of T20 cricket, Kohli made the young generation of fans fall in love with the Test format.

“It is massive, in the context of not just Indian cricket, but in the context of Test cricket as a format, itself. In today’s day and age, we all know the most watched format is definitely the T20s. In many ways, Kohli was the frontrunner in how Test cricket needs to be played and how much it needs to be valued and we are losing someone at a very important point in the cricketing ecosystem,” Karthik said.

Kohli led India in 68 Test matches, winning 40, drawing 11 and losing 17, and thus he is regarded as one of India’s most successful Test captains.