Ambati Rayudu: Former India cricketer Ambati Rayudu has lavished praise on veteran batter Virat Kohli. The 36-year-old was last seen in the 2025 IPL, where he piled up 657 runs in 15 innings, including eight fifties, as Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) clinched their maiden title.
Ambati Rayudu: On Monday, August 18, during a YouTube podcast with Shubhankar Mishra, Rayudu was asked about Kohli’s impact on Indian cricket. The 39-year-old hailed Kohli for ushering in a fitness revolution that has taken Indian cricket to a different level. Rayudu said:
“The kind of things he has done for Indian cricket, I don’t think anyone else has. And his value, many people don’t realize. It’s not just about his batting. Yes, batting is there, but fitness. Before him, players were fit, naturally fit, many of them. But because of him, Indian cricket has reached another level.”
“Virat Kohli has given Indian cricket the next 100 years in which Indian cricket will dominate. Because what he started is extraordinary. He had the skill, but to that skill he added fitness. Once you are fit, you are always mentally sharper, and your cricketing execution improves that much more. So for Test cricket also, it is very good. And in white-ball cricket, I don’t think, if we get our team combinations right going forward, that anybody in the world is close to beating us, except maybe Australia a little bit. And we will dominate world cricket,” he added.
Ambati Rayudu: Virat Kohli is expected to return to action in October during India’s three-match away ODI series against Australia.
“He should have played a lot more” – Ambati Rayudu weighs in on Virat Kohli’s retirement from Test cricket
In the same interaction, Ambati Rayudu also shared his thoughts on Virat Kohli’s retirement from Test cricket, with the Delhi-born batter bidding farewell to the format in May this year. Reacting to it, Rayudu said:
“In my opinion, he took it too early, 100%. He should have played this series (against England). He should have played a lot more. Fitness-wise, I don’t think even half the players are fitter than him. He has gone through so much, I mean he will understand what he wants, he will always have that tipping point I spoke about in his life, which we don’t know. So I just hope he is happy. Because sometimes people think if you have so many hundreds, or so much money, then you are happy. But eventually, I just hope that he is happy.”
The middle-order batter played 123 Tests, scoring 9,230 runs at an average of 46.85, including 31 half-centuries and 30 centuries.
