Delhi: Former Indian team veteran off -spinner Ravichandran Ashwin believes that Virat Kohli still had the ability to play Test cricket and he should have played this format for some more time. Describing Kohli’s retirement as ‘a bit hasty’, Ashwin said that his spirit of competition made him different.

Kohli announced his retirement from Test cricket on Monday, which ended a great journey in 2011. During this, he scored 9,230 runs in 123 Tests, including 30 centuries. As captain, he brought India to number 1 in the Test rankings and won the historic Test series in Australia in 2018-19.

Ashwin appreciated Kohli on her YouTube channel and said, “The thing that made her different was her tremendous energy, whether it was batting, captaincy or presence on the field only as a player. Many times I wanted to ask jokingly, ‘Virat, what did you eat for breakfast this morning?”

He further said, “I think Virat still had the ability to play a year or two and Test cricket. Is it possible that he had felt that he could not play the same intensely every moment?”

Another big name has been added to the list of senior players who said goodbye to the Indian Test team with Kohli’s retirement. Earlier, Ravichandran Ashwin retired from Tests in December and Rohit Sharma last week. Kohli scored 20 Test centuries as captain in his career, which is the highest by any Indian captain.