The social media handle of the County Championship has mocked Virat Kohli, indicating that the star batter might be taking a Test retirement to avoid facing England fast bowlers in the upcoming five-match series.

In the clip, England seamers Gus Atkinson and Josh Tongue can be seen bowling testing deliveries in the ongoing tournament.

English pacers have always played a big role in the success of the team at home, and Kohli has a habit of playing shots on the deliveries that are pitched outside the off stump.

“We don’t blame you, Virat,” the County Championship wrote.

In the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25, Virat scored just 190 runs in 9 innings, including a hundred in the series opener in Perth.

Reports suggest that Virat expressed his wish to lead the team again in the longest format, but his request was turned down by the BCCI, as they are focusing on the future and want a captain who leads the team for a long time.

Shubman Gill is the leading candidate to replace Rohit Sharma as Test skipper. Kohli, who made his Test debut against the West Indies in 2011, has played 123 matches, scoring 9230 runs at an average of 46.85 with 30 hundreds.

He led India in 68 Tests and is the most successful Indian captain in this format of the game. With Rohit Sharma already retired from Tests, Kohli’s exit could prove costly for the sub-continent team.

While the former players are stunned by Kohli’s call to retire, the selection committee thought about giving the captain’s armband to Virat to give some more time to Gill, but the BCCI didn’t like the idea.