Indian pacer shines while wearing Virat Kohli’s iconic No. 18 in England Lions vs India A 2025 1st Unofficial Test [In Picture]

Indian pacer Mukesh Kumar shone while wearing Virat Kohli's iconic No.18 number during the first unofficial Test between England Lions and India A. He has so far bagged three wickets in the ongoing game.

Mukesh Kumar, who sports #49 on his jersey for senior men's games, is wearing #18 for the India A match. Notably, Kohli announced his retirement from Test cricket on Monday, May 12.

India A batted first in the unofficial Test and put up a solid performance, accumulating 557 runs. In reply, England Lions were 333/5 on the third day at the time of writing. Among India A bowlers, Mukesh Kumar has been impressive so far.

He has picked up three wickets while giving away 56 runs from his 14 overs. He has dismissed Max Holden, England Lions skipper James Rew, and Rehan Ahmed.

---

Virat Kohli will not feature in the much-awaited England tour

The senior Indian men's team is set to play a five-match Test series against England, starting June 20. It was expected that Virat Kohli would at least play the England tour after reports of his retirement emerged.

However, the star batter did eventually announce his Test retirement. Kohli made his debut for India in the longest format in 2011 against the West Indies at Kingston, and his final series was the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT).

He had begun the series with a hundred in the first Test at Perth, but failed to carry the momentum through the rest of the series, ending with just 190 runs from five Tests.

Overall, Virat Kohli played 123 Tests for India and notched up 9230 runs at an average of 46.85. He also scored 30 centuries and 31 half-centuries. Kohli is also India's most successful Test captain with 40 wins from 68 matches - a win percentage of 58.82.

​