BCCI vice-president Rajeev Shukla has clarified whether Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were asked to retire from Test cricket. Both Rohit and Kohli announced their respective Test retirements within days of each other earlier this year even as the duo was expected to be on the flight to UK for the ongoing five-Test series between India and England. The decisions were surprising considering neither gave any prior hint. Rohit, in an interview to former Australia captain Michael Clarke, had expressed how he was looking forward to leading India in England while it later emerged that Kohli too was eager to get back his Test form in England, hoping for bucketful of runs. It did give rise to speculations over the retirement not being their own calls. However, Shukla has cleared the air, “once and for all.” “I want to make it very clear once and for all,” Shukla was quoted as saying by news agency ANI on Tuesday. “We are all feeling the absence of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. The decision to retire was made by Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli on their own. It is the policy of BCCI that we never tell any player to retire. It was their call.” Indian Teams Meet King Charles III 76-year-old British Monarch King Charles III met with the Indian men and women cricket teams in the gardens of Clarence House in Lond on Tuesday. He discussed cricket with the likes of Test captain Shubman Gill, Jasprit Bumrah and Rishabh Pant. “It was amazing. I think he (King Charles) is very kind and generous… we had some really good conversations,” Gill told media after the audience. King Charles III also enquired about India’s Lord’s Test defeat as they came close to chasing down 193 on the final day before an unfortunate dismissal ended their hopes. “He did tell us that the way our last batsman (Mohammed Siraj) got out was quite unfortunate, the ball rolling on to the stumps. And he was just asking us, ‘how did you feel after that?’ And we told him it was an unfortunate match for us… but hopefully, we’ll have better luck in both the next games,” Gill said.