His modest showing in the last Border-Gavaskar Trophy series notwithstanding, it would have been surprising had Virat Kohli not been among the runs on next month’s tour of England. Even a brave selection committee/think-tank would have jitters going on an England tour without experienced batsmen. Kohli made five Test tours to England. Rohit Sharma, who announced his Test retirement too, was part of three Test visits to Old Blighty. While there is good reason to believe that the BCCI/selectors ended being unsuccessful in convincing Kohli to be part of the touring party, there is also talk in some sections of the media that India’s finest batsman after Sachin Tendulkar may have been pushed to Test retirement. I’m inclined to believe that the former is true.

Cricket is littered with examples of captains, selectors, boards and even political figures attempting to change a player’s mind about retirement and taking on new roles. Most of those overtures proved successful, Kohli’s case falls into the ‘talks failed’ category. Since Kohli is a brave batsman, let’s start with an example concerning a courageous one – England’s Brian Close, who was recalled in Tony Greig’s team in 1976 after playing the 19th of his eventual 22 Test matches in 1967. Close, then 45 was still playing county cricket, having moved from Yorkshire to Somerset in 1971. He scored two and 36 not out in his comeback Test at Nottingham and followed it up with 60 and 46 at Lord’s. Old Trafford was where he was asked to open the innings with John Edrich. In I Don’t Bruise Easily, Close revealed he, “earned the right to bat in my best position [No. 4]” when Greig asked him to open the innings. Close told his captain that he hadn’t opened regularly since 1957. And when Close reminded Greig that there is a player in his team (Bob Woolmer) who opens the batting the Kent, Greig said with a smile, “We think Bob Woolmer is going to be on the international scene for a long time. We don’t want him killed off.” Close opened at Old Trafford, faced 20 balls for his two runs before Wayne Daniel trapped him LBW and faced 108 balls from West Indies quicks for his second innings 20. When he got back to the dressing room on Day Three, unbeaten on one, after taking 77 minutes to open his account and facing the fury of Michael Holding & Co, the dressing room attendant asked him if he needed a drink. He got “bottle of whiskey” for an answer. That was the end of Close’s tryst with opening the batting and his Test career.