Former India cricketer Manoj Tiwary reckons star India batter Virat Kohli might have had a brain fade moment and urged him to take back the retirement as soon as possible, given the fact that he still has a lot of cricket left in him and it only makes sense when someone is so close to 10,000 Test runs, a feat most cricketers dream of achieving. Kohli announced his retirement from Test cricket with immediate effect last week and will only be available to play for India in ODIs going forward. He had earlier retired from T20Is after India won the T20 World Cup in 2024.

"Sometimes you face a time when a brain fade can happen and you make a decision. It’s possible he had that too. There’s a lot of cricket left in him. He was too close to 10,000 runs. Although it might not be important to him, a lot of young cricketers dream of making their name in Test cricket and reaching that milestone. He had a good chance. I don’t know what happened or what went wrong that he made this decision," Tiwary told Cricbuzz.

“I’ll ask him to close his eyes and take the retirement back as soon as possible. It’ll bring back the happiness on the faces of all cricket fans,” he further added.

Taking his example, the 39-year-old said that even though he retired from cricket, he still ended up playing for Bengal in the Ranji Trophy, six days after he took that decision, once he realised he still had a lot to contribute.

“Even I did that. I took back retirement from first-class cricket after just five days and then played for Bengal, trying to win the Ranji Trophy,” concluded Tiwary.

Tiwary, who is not afraid to stir the pot, had once opened up on his relationship with Gautam Gambhir. While the two got along well early on in their careers, things went south after a couple of years as Tiwary felt that Gambhir wasn't fair to him when they started playing for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the Indian Premier League.

"I would get scolded without any reason. I couldn't understand why he would target me. In fact, when I came to KKR in 2010, he and I got along nicely. But then he would lose his cool at me out of the blue. He would use very hurtful words. Then, when I started thinking about it, I realised that out of all the local boys at KKR, I was the one who used to perform consistently. And since I was a promising youngster, the media was giving me attention. So, he didn't react to it well. That is what I believe," Tiwary told Lallantop earlier in the year.

“Leading up to our fight at the 2015 Ranji Trophy, he was angry at me. In KKR, we had an argument. I was constantly getting demoted in the KKR batting order. In one of the friendly matches against Australia, I was the highest scorer. I had scored 129, while he [Gambhir] scored 110. Even then, he lost his cool. I was applying sunscreen when he came to me and shouted, 'What are you doing here? Everybody else is on the ground'. Out of nowhere,” he concluded while recalling the incident.