India needs to find a new Virat Kohli, the old one has retired: Nasser Hussain

Former England cricketer and commentator Nasser Hussain felt that India strongly missed the master of run-chase Virat Kohli on the fifth and final day of the Lord’s Test as they suffered a 22-run defeat to England, trailing the series by 1-2 with two more games to go.

Notably, there have been a lot of mentions of Kohli before the start of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. Interestingly, many in the cricketing fraternity questioned the Indian talismanic batter’s retirement timing with the new WTC cycle starting up.

"No Virat Kohli today. India needs to find a new one. The old one has retired. He was the king of the run chase," Hussain said in commentary on Day 5.

Interestingly, this was India’s first-ever tour to England without Virat Kohli since 2011. It’s important to note that both Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma announced their Test retirements in May 2025 before the start of the England tour.

The Indian selection committee, led by Ajit Agarkar, was quick enough to appoint Shubman Gill as the new Test captain. While India looked pretty comfortable in the absence of Kohli in the Leeds Test, they couldn’t get their hands on the victory, suffering a five-wicket defeat.

Later in the Birmingham Test, Gill took the onus, smacking twin centuries to propel India to a gigantic 336-run win in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah to level the series 1–1. However, India, while chasing 193 runs at Lord’s on Day 5, strongly missed a batter of Kohli’s calibre. Eventually, India had to suffer a 22-run defeat to trail the series by 1-2.

It’s worth noting that Kohli announced his retirement on May 12, five days after captain Rohit Sharma. However, both Kohli and Rohit would be seen in the ODI format, with the ICC ODI World Cup scheduled to take place in 2027.

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