Watch: “I Miss Him…” – South Africa Legend makes emotional remark on Virat Kohli not playing Test cricket

Ahead of an SA20 match, South African cricket legend Allan Donald openly discussed that he missed Virat Kohli in the tests. Donald feels that Virat Kohli took retirement from Test cricket a little bit early. But still, the former pacer acknowledges the legacy Virat Kohli left behind in the format. 

Donald further also believes that the way Kohli will definitely feature in the World Cup. The former South Africa international, who had worked with Virat Kohli in Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), got to know closely how the batter used to train himself. So he described the Indian batting icon as a machine. 

"You know, I don't think I've ever seen hunger in a player other than Virat. I've got massive respect for him. I often talk about it in the dressing rooms and chat about being a champion trainer. There's no one that trains as hard as him. He is just a machine. I actually miss him in the Test match arena. I think he’s retired too early, but yeah, I look with no doubt we will see him in the white-ball arena in the World Cup very, very soon,” Allan Donald said to media ahead of an SA20 match. 

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South Africa cricket legend Allan Donald's remarks on Virat Kohli 

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"It’s going to be a heck of a tournament (T20 World Cup 2026) in India, isn’t it? South Africa picked a very strong squad. There might always be question marks about who’s not going and who should have gone and all that kind of stuff. I think India has got the best T20 wickets on the planet. It’s just so hard for any bowler, and I’ve seen it in the IPL with scores of 124 in a power play. That’s just where the skill of batting has gone."

Before taking retirement from the Whites, Kohli played 123 Test matches over a 14-year international career before retiring from the format in May 2025. In those matches he batted in 210 innings and scored 9,230 runs at an impressive average of 46.85, with a highest score of 254 not out. Kohli reached 30 Test centuries and 31 fifties, consistently anchoring the Indian batting lineup across conditions and opponents.