Ashwin handpicks his favourite Test batsmanship of India batting icons Rohit, Virat

Virat's departure from red-ball cricket continued the exodus trend from the Test format in the Indian setup. Before the Indian batting bigwigs, the illustrious frontline off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin called it a day on his international career midway through the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia earlier this year.

Out of Rohit's diverse selection of knocks, Ashwin picked the seasoned opener's swashbuckling displays in England back in 2021, which paved the way for India's dominance, as his favourite.

"My favourite piece of batsmanship of Rohit for India was when he played in England [2021]. When he and KL Rahul opened, we were 2-1 ahead because of Rohit. The opening partnership was gun, strong," he said on his YouTube channel 'Ash Ki Baat'.

With his enchanting performances, Rohit was India's highest run-getter in the series with 368 runs from four Tests at a stellar average of 52.57. The former ball tweaker picked out 2018 to 2023 as Rohit's best phase as a batter, a period where he effortlessly tallied 2,281 runs in 30 Tests, at 47.52, laced with seven centuries and as many fifties each.

"Between 2018-19 and 2022-23, it was Rohit's best phase as a Test batter. Even in the Covid series in Australia, which we won, his batting was top-notch. Then also he was looking very good, didn't get big runs, but batting was top notch," he added.

Ashwin then moved to "box office" Virat, who has served as the "brand ambassador" of Test cricket. For the 38-year-old, the way Virat roared in his Test captaincy debut with twin centuries in Adelaide in 2014 was one of the finest he had seen.

"Kohli, the Test cricketer, was box office; he was the brand ambassador of Test cricket in many ways. Some of his best knocks haven't always resulted in wins, but that's taking nothing away from those knocks. The twin hundreds in Adelaide in 2014 - that knock not finishing in a win is a shame. The 153 in Johannesburg, the pink-ball Test when we were all out for 36, the 74 he made in the first innings - some of the knocks are incredible," he added.