What is the right time to retire?
Well, there’s no one right answer but the most common and ideal advise that is often thrown around is to call it quits when on top. But the temptation to continue and maximise the good run has more often than not has trumped.
In just over a month’s time, Virat Kohli, one of the finest batters to have played the game, will turn 35 and get a year close towards reaching the end of his glorious playing career.
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Although the ageing star refuses to slow down. Kohli is still fit as a fiddle, is lighting quick between the wickets, continues to be one of the finest fielders around and with the bat remains at the top of his game.
The big question that arises: what will be the ideal time for Kohli to draw curtains on his career?
His former IPL teammate AB de Villiers thinks that Kohli doesn’t think too far into the future and will currently be focused on the 2023 ODI World Cup which starts in less than 10 days from now.
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However, he though feels that the ideal scenario would be India winning the world cup and Kohli then possibly quitting the one-day format.
“I know he loves travelling to South Africa (for the 2027 World Cup), but it’s very difficult to say. It is a long time away. Let’s focus on this one first, I think that’s what Virat Kohli would tell you. I think if they win this World Cup, it might not be a bad time to say, ‘Thank you very much. I am maybe just going to play Test cricket for the next few years and a little bit of IPL, enjoy the last bit of my career, have enough family time, and say goodbye to everyone’,” De Villiers said on his YouTube channel.
“But he is in incredible shape and is mentally still there. He has been rested from time to time, which I think is a great move. So, I think the hunger and the fire will still be there,” he added.
Kohli has had a memorable career so far and is inching closer towards claiming the all-time ODI record for the most centuries currently held by Sachin Tendulkar.
Kohli needs two more hundreds to match his former teammate and one more to overtake the batting legend something he could do during the world cup itself.
De Villiers says Kohli is someone who is never driven by personal records and he rather wants to win trophies for his team.
“I don’t think that is his focus. That is not his main drive. He has never been all about myself kind of a guy. He wants to win World Cups for his team and be part of a successful unit in all formats of the game. He is a team player, and that’s what you see on the field (with) all those emotions coming out. Especially when he is fielding, there is nothing really to gain for him, but you could see that emotion, which tells you how much it means to him to win,” De Villiers said.
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