“India Will Miss Virat Kohli” – England captain Ben Stokes warns before Test series

Virat Kohli’s retirement from Test cricket shocked everyone in cricket. The former India captain was seen as the torchbearer for the longest format of the game. He put red-ball cricket over everything else. He was a titan in white-ball cricket, but even after his miserable tour of England in 2014, where he scored just 134 runs in 10 innings, Kohli placed all of his eggs in the Test basket.

4 years later, Kohli returned to England and dominated. He scored 593 in 10 innings this time. He brought about a pace revolution in Indian cricket. Became the first Asian captain to win a Test series in Australia. His aggressive, unrelenting brand of cricket earned him fans across the globe.

Recently Greg Chappell called him the “most Australian non-Australian cricketer”. Even the opposition was in awe of Kohli. And current England Test captain Ben Stokes also happens to be an admirer of him. With less than a month left before the India vs England Test series, Stokes thinks the visitors will miss him big time.

“What India will miss will be his fighting spirit out in the game, his competitiveness, and desire to win,” Stokes told the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). “He’s made number 18, his. It’ll be a bit weird not seeing number 18 on the back of any Indian shirt. He’s been class for them for a long period of time,” he added.

Stokes isn’t much different from Kohli. Both give all they have in the field. They almost have a never-ending desire to win. Energy enough to power a city. So even if India might have been more formidable to beat with Kohli coming to England, Stokes would rather go toe-to-toe against them than not.

“I did text him that it’s going to be a shame not to play against him. Because I love playing against Virat. We both love playing against each other. We both have that same mindset on the field, you know; it’s a battle. He’s been incredible. I’m sure there has been a lot of praise in India, and definitely there has been praise here (England). He’s done really well against England; he’s a class player,” Stokes added.