Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma recently shocked the cricketing fraternity by announcing their Test retirements. Virat was just 770 runs short of the 10000-mark and looked set to tour England. Rohit, who dropped himself for the fifth Test against Australia earlier in the year, had confirmed that he was still the Test captain.

But both the India legends decided to call it quits. They had given up T20I cricket after winning the 2024 World Cup and are now only active in ODIs. They will make their return to international cricket later in October, when the Men in Blue tour Australia for a white-ball series.

Anil Kumble shared his take on the duo and highlighted the challenge for them. Speaking to JioHostar, Kumble, India's highest wicket-taker in international cricket, said: "It's not easy to just do what they need to in terms of preparing for an ODI, which is six months down the line. It's going to be a challenge, no matter who you are and how well you have had your career over the years."

"But they are champion players, so they know how to sort of manoeuvre that, and it's important to celebrate champion players as long as they play. You go into thread bare of each performance as to how they should have played or how they could have played.

"What is important is to celebrate whatever is out there with the two players. Ideally, they would like to play until the 2027 World Cup, because that's something that did not happen. We saw that 2023 (World Cup) final with Australia holding the trophy," he added.

Kumble was India's head coach when Virat was India's all-format captain. His stint ended after the 2017 Champions Trophy.

Virat finished his Test career with 9230 runs in 123 Test matches. With 40 wins, he is India's most successful Test captain. Rohit scored 4301 runs in 67 Tests. He captained India to 12 wins from 24 Tests.

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