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England Test captain Ben Stokes will miss batting maestro Virat Kohli's cover drive, a shot that will "live long in the memory" and highlight one aspect that India will miss about its stalwart in the upcoming five high-stakes Tests between the two sides, set to begin on June 20.
More than a month before India's gruelling Test tour of England, Virat bid farewell to red-ball cricket with a heartfelt note on Instagram, days after his long-time compatriot Rohit retired from the format. The illustrious 14-year-long journey filled with tales of success, perseverance and heartbreak saw Virat reshape the way spectators perceived Test cricket. Virat transformed India into a result-producing machine during his memorable stint in the whites. He infused aggression and the culture of fitness into a team riddled with youth and experience. In a career that redefined the demands of the game, Virat scored 9,230 runs at an average of 46.85, with 30 centuries and 31 fifties, and finished as India's fourth-highest run-getter in the format. "He's been incredible. He deserves all the accolades. No doubt, there's been plenty of praise for him in India and here as well. He's done well in England, too," Stokes said in a video posted by the ECB. One aspect of Virat's game that impressed the English Test skipper the most was the amount of force he applied while striking the ball through the covers and added, "In white-ball formats especially, he's wow. One thing I'll always remember about Virat is how hard he hits the ball through the covers, that cover drive will live long in the memory." Virat's ruthless aggression and animated body language transformed India's mentality towards a game. With the 36-year-old out of the Test picture, Stokes reminisced about how much he loved playing against the Indian stalwart and a "shame" that he won't get the opportunity to do so this time. "I think what India will miss is his fighting spirit on the field, his competitiveness, his desire to win. Probably he's made No. 18 his own, we might never see it on the back of another Indian shirt. He's been pure class for such a long time. I texted him saying it's going to be a shame not to play against him this time," he said. "I love playing against Virat. We've always loved playing against each other because we share the same mindset on the field - it's a battle," he added. Virat's retirement from red-ball cricket marked the continuation of the exodus trend from the Test format in the Indian setup. Before the Indian batting bigwigs, the illustrious frontline off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin called it a day on his international career midway through the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia. With India threadbare in terms of experience of defying the challenging English conditions, Stokes isn't willing to take the revamped Asian Giants lightly. "One thing about India is their battery of batsmen; it is just incredible. The time I've spent in the IPL, they've got batters coming out of there... can't say a word on this in this interview, but you know what I mean. You can never take any Indian team lightly, even if the fact that they are without two of their great batsmen," he said. (ANI)
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