Former England pacer James Anderson has praised Virat Kohli as one of the greatest batters ever to play test cricket, and believes that India possesses the capability to fill up the voids left by the star batter.

Within six months of the gap, three cricketers, Ravichandran Ashwin, Rohit Sharma, and Virat Kohli, have announced their retirement. They are an integral part of India’s test squad, and filling their gaps will be tough for the side.

However, Virat Kohli’s sudden retirement has shocked everyone. Kohli has an illustrious career with 9230 runs in 123 matches, including a stellar 30 centuries and 31 fifties.

He hung up his spikes as the fourth most successful test captain overall, behind Graeme Smith (53 Wins), Ricky Ponting (48 wins), and Steve Waugh (41 Wins).

Kohli’s 30 test centuries make him fourth most successful India batter, behind Sachin Tendulkar (51 hundreds), Rahul Dravid (36 Hundreds) and Sunil Gavaskar (34).

Virat Kohli has seven test double hundreds, the most ever by an Indian. The veteran batter has shared an epic rivalry with Anderson, producing numerous unforgettable battles. He scored 305 runs against the England great at an average of 43.57 in 36 innings, dismissing him seven times.

“Great players. There will be a new captain because Sharma has retired. Kohli, one of the greatest Test batters that’s ever been. There’s big shoes to fill there but they’ve got a huge amount of talent in their squad.”

“You just have to watch the IPL. They are bringing players into Test cricket from the IPL now who are just so attacking, aggressive, and fearless,” said James Anderson.

Virat Kohli’s decision comes after Rohit Sharma made a suprising announcement to call time on his career in the longest format.

The stalwarts Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma retired just over a month before India’s five match test series against England, which will mark the start of a new World Test Championship (WTC) cycle.