Daryll Cullinan Not Surprised With Virat Kohli’s Retirement: “You Get to a Point Where…”

Former South African cricketer Daryll Cullinan has stated that Virat Kohli’s retirement wasn’t surprising to him. He further expressed his thoughts on the latter’s retirement and delved into what might’ve been the reason for his decision.

India’s star batter Virat Kohli announced his exit from the longest format of cricket earlier this week. Since then, many speculations have gone around social media about the reason for this sudden announcement.

“He probably got to that stage”: Cullinan

Daryll Cullinan, in conversation with HT, said that Virat’s retirement was not surprising. Given his form for the last few years, the announcement was expected.

“His retirement didn’t really come as a surprise to me. We’ve seen in recent times he’s battled a bit at Test cricket. And what happens, I believe, as a batsman too, or sportsman or cricketer, is that when you are constantly working on your game and physically staying in shape and mentally dealing with anxiety at Test cricket, you get to a point where you don’t want to put in that work to get yourself out of a bad rut or find some form again.

You don’t feel you want to do it anymore. I think that’s as much whether it’s injury or a really bad run which ends your career,” Cullinan told Hindustan Times.

“I think he probably got to that stage. He has a big life now outside of cricket, and he’s playing white ball cricket and probably felt, well, you know, it’s time to move on, family and all these things kind of play on your mind. So the thing too is that you don’t want to leave when it’s too late,” added Cullinan.

England Might’ve Proved Challenging for Virat

Cullinan believes that playing in England would have proved to be difficult, as he has struggled in the past.

“And the series in England would have been hard work for him. And he’s had his struggles there in the past. And particularly with pace or movement or seeing, he would have had to have really put in the time and the hours to have a good series and to play well. So I think weighing up all the considerations, I think that’s why he decided now’s the time.”

Virat’s Test Career

Virat made his debut in 2011 against the West Indies and went on to play 123 matches for India.
He scored 9,230 runs, averaging 46.85. He ended his career as the fourth-highest Test run-scorer after Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, and Sunil Gavaskar.

However, in the last five years of his career, he scored only 4 centuries. In the recent series in Australia, he struggled to find his rhythm.

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