"The selectors have to decide now" - Aakash Chopra on Virat Kohli's Test future after BGT 2024-25

Aakash Chopra has opined that the Test future of underperforming seniors like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma needs to be decided now. He pointed out that the selectors can't wait till India's tour of England later this year as there won't be any Test cricket played till then.

India suffered a 1-3 defeat in the recently concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024-25 and were knocked out of the World Test Championship (WTC) final race. Kohli scored 190 runs at an average of 23.75 in nine innings in the five-match series.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel 'Aakash Chopra,' the former India opener highlighted that Kohli's Test numbers in the last five years haven't been good and urged the selectors to take a call on his future immediately.

"Unfortunately, the numbers of the last five years are saying that whoever is talking is not about propaganda or agenda. You can see home or away, the numbers are saying that things aren't looking good. Irfan (Pathan) said on Star Sports that if Virat Kohli hasn't scored runs for five years, play a kid as he too would score runs at an average of 25," he said.

"What you want to do is your choice but the selection is the selectors' job. Since you are going to the next WTC cycle, you haven't qualified for the final, and neither he nor Rohit has scored runs, the team is going through a transition and things are looking quite shaky, the ball is in the selectors' court. They have to decide now because if you think about what will happen till England, there won't be any Test cricket in between," Chopra added.

Virat Kohli has aggregated 2028 runs at an average of 30.72 in 39 Tests since the beginning of 2020. His career average, which was well above 50, has resultantly fallen to 46.85.

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Aakash Chopra on Virat Kohli's year-wise numbers since 2020

Virat Kohli has scored only three Test hundreds in the last five years. [P/C: Getty]

Reflecting on Virat Kohli's year-wise numbers over the last five years, Aakash Chopra opined that 2020 can potentially be ignored.

"He played only three matches in 2020, scored 116 runs in total, with a highest of 74, at an average of 19.33. Let's not give that much importance to just three matches. It wasn't good but the sample size was very small. So let's forget 2020 since 2019-20 was like that due to COVID," he said in the same video.

The cricketer-turned-commentator termed 2021 'an extremely poor year' for the ace Indian batter.

"He played 11 matches in 2021, scored 536 runs, didn't score a century, 72 was his highest and had an average of 28. It's a bad year for anyone. If we see from Virat's viewpoint, it was an extremely poor year. If we see from some other player's angle, he would get dropped if he had an average of 28," Chopra elaborated.

Chopra noted that Kohli's indifferent run continued in 2022 as well.

"He played six matches in 2022, scored 265 runs in total at an average of 26.50. He did not score a century and the highest was 79. So we are talking about 20 Test matches now (since 2020) where he hasn't scored a century and the best average for a year was 28 and the poorest was 19," he observed.

The analyst highlighted that Kohli's performances in 2023 raised hopes about him regaining his form.

"2023 was actually a good year. India went to the West Indies and Australia came to India and he scored two centuries in that year. He scored 671 runs in eight matches at an average of 55, and we all started thinking that Virat Kohli was back," Chopra stated.

However, Chopra pointed out that the modern batting great was again found wanting in 2024, with the lean run continuing even in the 2025 Sydney Test.

"Then comes 2024. He missed the entire England tour of India due to personal reasons. He played 10 Test matches in total in 2024 and scored 417 runs, with one century in a winning cause for sure, but the average was 24.5. He played 19 innings and was dismissed for single digits 10 times," he noted.

Aakash Chopra pointed out that Virat Kohli has averaged over 30 only once in the last five years. He added that only one of his centuries has come in a winning cause and that too when India were comfortably placed at 275/2 when he walked out to bat.