Virat Kohli is right up there with Gavaskar, Tendulkar, Dravid: Dinesh Karthik

Dinesh Karthik and Virat Kohli. (Source - Getty Images)

shocked the cricket fraternity by announcing his retirement from Test cricket on Monday, May 12. Since then, tributes and congratulatory posts have been pouring in for the 36-year-old, who finished as India's fourth-highest run-getter in the format.

Dinesh Karthik, who spent many years with Kohli in the Indian team as well as at Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), said that the Delhi batter is in the same league as stalwarts like Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, and Rahul Dravid. Karthik said that while Kohli's batting credentials were impressive, his aggressive captaincy made him special, as it instilled fear in his opponents.

"We have had some legends of the game. The Gavaskars, the Tendulkars and Virat Kohli is right up there with some of those names, Rahul Dravid and all of them. But more than what he did with the bat, I think it was how he captained Team India, the kind of fear he was able to inflict in opposition, but most importantly for the game of cricket, the intensity with which he played across five days, that was the most admirable part," Karthik said on Sky Sports on Kohli's abrupt retirement.

Reports had been circulating all over the internet regarding Kohli's willingness to retire from the longest format. However, fans were hoping that those were mere speculations. The right-handed batter finished with 9,230 runs from 123 Tests at an average of 46.85. He registered 31 fifties and 30 centuries during his illustrious career. This includes a career-best score of 254, which came against South Africa in Pune in 2019.

Kohli's retirement call comes a little over a month before India's eagerly-anticipated five-match Test tour of England. While the legendary batter wasn't in great form in red-ball cricket in recent months, his experience would have been invaluable to the Indian contingent. With Rohit Sharma also retiring from the format last week, India will have a new-look batting lineup, which will have its task cut out in the seamer-friendly English conditions.