3 min readJan 6, 2026 03:28 PM IST
First published on: Jan 6, 2026 at 03:26 PM IST
Joe Root scored his 41st Test century on Day 1 of the fifth Ashes Test, leaving just the legendary pair of Sachin Tendulkar and Jacques Kallis ahead of him in the list of players with most tons in the nearly 150-year history of the format. Root equalled Ricky Ponting to be joint third on the list, with Tendulkar having scored 51 and Kallis having made 45. Just a day later, though, Steve Smith replied with a century of his own, his 37th overall and 13th in the Ashes, which is the second most for any player. Only the legendary Don Bradman is ahead of him.
Former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar said that it is somewhat disappointing that Virat Kohli chose to retire from Test cricket while fellow members of the ‘Fab 4’ Smith, Root and Kane Williamson continue to make waves in the format. “Well, as Joe Root attains new heights in Test cricket, my mind goes to Virat Kohli. He’s walked away from Tests, and it’s unfortunate that in the five years that he struggled before retiring, he didn’t quite put his heart and soul into finding out the problems as to why he was averaging 31 for five years in Tests. That is for another time as to what he could have done. But I just feel sad that people like Joe Root and Steve Smith, Kane Williamson are really making a name for themselves in Test Cricket,” Manjrekar said on his Instagram handle.
Williamson had not played Test cricket for just under a year before making his comeback in New Zealand’s recently concluded series against the West Indies. He also played a domestic first class game in the Plunket Shield before the series.
While Kohli was considered by some to be the foremost of the four players in Test cricket in the years before 2020, the former India captain’s form saw an alarming dip after the pandemic that never truly recovered. He retired in May 2025, with his last series being the 2024/25 tour of Australia in which his weakness outside the off stump was brutally exploited by the home pacers. Despite averaging just above 30 for the last five years of his career, Kohli retired with a career average of 46.85 in 123 Tests.
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“It was okay (if) Virat Kohli (had) just walked away from cricket, retired from all cricket. But that he’s chosen to play one-day cricket actually disappoints me more, because this is a format which, for a top-order batter, I’ve said before as well, is the easiest format.”
“The format that really tests you is first, obviously, Test Cricket, and T20 cricket has its different challenges. The other thing is because he’s so fit, supremely fit, you feel even more that he could have maybe continued his fight, you know, to get back into form, even if he was left out of a series, he could have maybe gone down to first-class cricket, played in Australia, England, more matches in India, tried to make another comeback,” added Manjrekar.
Despite averaging just above 30 for the last five years of his career, Kohli retired with a career average of 46.85 in 123 Tests. (PTI Photo) 
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