{"id":47037,"date":"2025-08-06T05:10:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T05:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/47037\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T05:10:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T05:10:11","slug":"cricket-languishes-in-premature-retirement-shashi-tharoor-reignites-call-for-virat-kohlis-test-comeback-cricket-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/47037\/","title":{"rendered":"Cricket | &#8216;Languishes in premature retirement&#8217;: Shashi Tharoor reignites call for Virat Kohli&#8217;s Test comeback | Cricket News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/123131838.jpg\" alt=\"Cricket | 'Languishes in premature retirement': Shashi Tharoor reignites call for Virat Kohli's Test comeback\" title=\"Virat Kohli (AP Photo) \" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/> NEW DELHI: Congress MP and renowned public figure <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/shashi-tharoor\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Shashi Tharoor<\/a> has once again sparked debate around Virat Kohli\u2019s retirement from Test cricket, calling it \u201cpremature\u201d and urging the Indian stalwart to return to the longest format. Tharoor\u2019s latest remarks came after India\u2019s spirited 2-2 series draw in England, under new skipper <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/shubman-gill\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Shubman Gill<\/a>, who led a young side admirably in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@toisports\" rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" target=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\">SUBSCRIBE NOW!<\/a>Despite India fighting back from a 1-2 deficit with a draw in Manchester and a nail-biting win at The Oval, Tharoor couldn\u2019t help but reflect on what might have been with Kohli in the lineup.<\/p>\n<p>India need EIGHT wickets, England 324 runs: Who will come out on top at The Oval?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was just admiring Joe @root66\u2019s consistent excellence as England\u2019s hardy perennial at age 35, while @imVkohli, just two years older, languishes in premature retirement,\u201d Tharoor posted on social media, in reply to a debate on Kohli\u2019s potential return.<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Shashi Tharoor\" msid=\"123131847\" width=\"\" title=\"\" placeholdersrc=\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/photo\/83033472.cms\" imgsize=\"23456\" resizemode=\"4\" offsetvertical=\"0\" placeholdermsid=\"\" type=\"thumb\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/shashi-tharoor.jpg\" data-api-prerender=\"true\"\/>Earlier during the fifth Test, Tharoor had already voiced his emotions, posting: \u201cI\u2019ve been missing @imVkohli a few times during this series, but never as much as in this Test match. His grit and intensity, his inspirational presence in the field, not to mention his abundant batting skills, might have led to a different outcome. Is it too late to call him out of retirement? Virat, the nation needs you!\u201dKohli, 36, announced his Test retirement in May 2025, ending a stellar 14-year red-ball career with 123 Tests, 9,230 runs, 30 hundreds, and a top score of 254*. He remains India&#8217;s most successful Test captain in England, with three wins, and was central to several near-misses \u2014 including the closely contested 2018 series and the COVID-delayed 2021-22 finale.As Team India embraces a new era, Tharoor\u2019s impassioned appeal may reignite calls from fans and pundits alike for King Kohli\u2019s red-ball encore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW DELHI: Congress MP and renowned public figure Shashi Tharoor has once again sparked debate around Virat Kohli\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[8470,64,63,740,30042,8469,40325,40324,39310,10536,85,1211,40323],"class_list":["post-47037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-anderson-tendulkar-trophy","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-india-england-test-series","tag-indian-cricket","tag-king-kohli","tag-kohli-retirement","tag-shashi-tharoor","tag-shubman-gill","tag-sports","tag-test-cricket","tag-virat-kohli-test-comeback"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}