Amid buzz on Virat's Test retirement, a look at batter's up-down battle with swing, seam in England

Virat's decision and this report about his Test retirement come just over a month before India's tour to England for a five-Test series. The series will kickstart on June 20 at Headingley and also mark the starting point of India's ICC World Test Championship 2025-27 campaign.

If Virat chooses to end his career before the England tour, he would end his career before going to England, a place where he has gone three times for Test series at three different points in his career.

Here is a look at Virat's Test timeline in England:

2014: This was Virat in his formative years in the longest format of the game, battling numerous ups and downs in his game. Riding on a successful New Zealand tour with the bat, where he scored 215 runs in four innings with a century and fifty, much was expected from Virat on his first Test tour of England.

Instead, Virat had a disastrous tour, where he struggled with the top-quality seam and swing bowling by the England pace duo of James Anderson and Stuart Broad. The class of this bowling duo, with over 1,300 wickets to their name, was too much for a 25-year-old Virat, as he could score just 134 runs in 10 innings at a poor average of 13.40, with the best score of 39. He often struggled with the deliveries outside the off-stump line. Anderson brought this weakness to the front for the cricketing world to see, and he dismissed him four times. With each edge to an outside off-stump delivery, chinks in his armour were exposed.

2018: From 2016-19, Virat had one of the best peaks ever by a batter in Test cricket, scoring 4,208 runs in 43 matches at an average of 66.79, with 16 centuries and 10 fifties. A crown jewel of this whole run was the England tour in 2018. Dedicating hours to honing his craft and overcoming his past weaknesses, Virat was extremely keen to add to his monumental Test run and avenge his humiliation from Anderson and Broad. Virat ended the tour with 593 runs in five matches at an average of 59.30, with two centuries and three fifties, topping the run-charts.

The 'King' had conquered England as well. Not once did he succumb to his foe, Anderson, but rather, he handled him with a mix of class and aggression that only he could have shown. With a loud roar following his century at Edgbaston, Virat started a superhuman, lone warrior effort with the bat, which went in vain as India lost the series 4-1.

2021/22: This series came during Virat's first real slump in form. This was a phase of his career when everyone realised that Virat was a human after all and could have his ups and downs after years of delivering almost inhuman-level performances.

His struggles with the outside off-stump line and England's swing and seam movement once again resurfaced and led to him piling up average numbers. Virat emerged as the eighth-highest run-getter, scoring 249 runs in nine matches at an average of 27.76, with two half-centuries and a couple of useful 40s. While these numbers do not look attractive, Virat nevertheless put up a resilient fight in English conditions, but could not overcome them like he did back in 2018. His rivalry with Anderson was reignited, as he dismissed him twice.

Due to the up-and-down nature of these tours, Virat's numbers in England do not do true justice to his talent and ability against world-class bowling in overseas conditions. Virat has played 17 Tests in England, scoring 1,096 runs at an average of 33.21, with two centuries and five fifties in 33 innings and the best score of 149.

Will Virat board the flight to England? If he does, will the 'King' have one last masterclass in testing English conditions that could give him the motivation to go in whites? Only time will tell.