IMAGE: Virat Kohli announced his retirement from Test cricket on May 12, 2025. Photograph: BCCI
Former England speedster Steve Harmison believes that if batting maestro Virat Kohli were batting at his usual No. 4 position in the third Test against England at Lord’s, India would have chased down the target of 193 and taken a 2-1 lead in the five-match series.
After three days of pulsating contest, India and England remained inseparable at the Home of Cricket, with both posting 387 in the first innings. In the second essay, England were bundled out for 192, but their pacers bowled with fire in the final session on Day 4, reducing India to 58-4 at stumps. Although Ravindra Jadeja, in the company of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj, fought valiantly on the final day, India fell 22 runs short of the target.
Harmison felt that if India had chase master Kohli, who retired from the longest format just before the tour of England, in their ranks, the final outcome would have been different.
“India have scored more hundreds, more top-order runs, and taken more new-ball wickets, but England have got a knack of finding a way to win. Finding a way of creating an event throughout a session to change the course of the game. For me, India have to start believing. This is where the likes of Virat Kohli were unbelievable. In a fourth innings chase, he goes and wins the game comfortably. He would have won that game comfortably at Lord’s,” Harmison said in ESPNcricinfo Match Day.
In his decorated Test career, Kohli made 123 appearances, scoring 9,230 runs at an average of 46.85, with 30 centuries and 31 fifties. He is India’s fourth-highest run-getter in the format, behind Sachin Tendulkar (15,921 runs), Rahul Dravid (13,265 runs), and Sunil Gavaskar (10,122 runs).