On 12th May 2025, as the IPL was still at a halt due to the ongoing tensions between India and Pakistan, Virat Kohli announced his retirement from Test cricket. The 36-year-old took to his Instagram and announced that after 14 years of donning the ‘Baggy Blue’ (India’s Test jersey), he felt the calling to hang up his boots. The news came a few days after his longtime teammate Rohit Sharma also hung up his boots in Test cricket, and it sent waves of disappointment and sadness among cricket fans.
Virat Kohli last played a test match at the Sydney Cricket Ground early this year, during the 5th Test match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. It was a low-scoring game, and India lost that match by 6 wickets. Virat Kohli, in particular, failed to get runs with the bat. He made scores of 17(69) and 6(12) in both innings, neither of which helped his cause to secure his spot in the team.
This development comes in the wake of Kohli’s string of low scores in the past few years. In fairness, Virat Kohli did score a scintillating hundred in the second innings of the first test match in Perth. After that, it’s been a flurry of low scores one after the other.
More alarmingly, Virat Kohli was dismissed in a similar fashion throughout the remainder of the series, where Australian bowlers pitched the ball outside off-stump, around the fifth stump line, and he kept edging it. It became such a recurring thing that people started making memes and trolling him online.
While it’s safe to say that a cricketer of Virat Kohli’s caliber won’t respond to trolls and memes much, the overwhelming nature of criticism must’ve impacted him. There were talks regarding his eyesight, his hand-eye coordination, his poor shot selection, and whatnot. The man with 123 tests and 9230 runs had to bear it all from those with lesser achievements than him – social media users, internet trolls, podcasters, and even commentators and analysts at times.
Many of us felt that it might be the end of Virat Kohli in Test cricket. But most of us also secretly wished that we were wrong. Anyways, post India’s loss of 3-1 at the Border-Gavaskar tournament, as no announcements were made, fans started to believe that Virat Kohli (& Rohit Sharma) would continue to play in this format. Meanwhile, India won the Champions Trophy, and both Kohli and R Sharma went straight into the IPL.
When Kohli announced his retirement from Tests, many cricket fans knew it was around the corner, but were still shocked by the timing of it. India will now head into the 5-test match England series without Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma in their unit. But what about Virat Kohli’s legacy as a Test cricketer? Will he only be known as a Test batter who played ferociously, or a captain who instilled fearlessness and aggression into the Indian players? Let’s look at his Test career and the key highlights from it.
Virat Kohli’s Stats Speak for Themselves
Indeed, Virat Kohli did not get to reach the milestone of 10,000 Test runs, a coveted feat for most Test cricketers. It was mainly due to his poor form in Test cricket post-pandemic, where batting became tough, and he struggled to get on with it. But his contributions to the game supersede his runs by a mile.
Virat Kohli made his Test debut against the West Indies in 201, where he failed to make an impact immediately. His first Test ton came against Australia in 2012 during the 4th test in Adelaide. From there onwards, there was no looking back for him.
He kept piling on runs in his career, scoring fifties and hundreds against every single opposition at will. His finest test series came in 2014, during the Border-Gavaskar series in Australia. Virat Kohli faced the likes of prime Mitchell Johnson, Ryan Harris, Peter Siddle, and Nathan Lyon.
He smashed 4 hundreds in that series and scored 692 runs at an average of 86.50. It was nearly unheard of for an Indian batter to play that well in Australia until then. India may have lost that series 0-2, but Indian cricket fans witnessed the rise of a modern-day great in Tests.
Virat Kohli’s exploits in Test cricket only improved from there. In 2016, Virat Kohli scored his first double hundred (200) against the West Indies, and he followed it up with two more in that same year. In 2017, he scored three more double tons, and just like that, Virat Kohli had made six double tons in Test cricket within 18 months. He was at the peak of his career, a peak unlike any other in Test cricket.
Despite these mouth-watering scores, Virat Kohli needed to overcome a challenge in his career – the England tour. By 2018, Virat Kohli had 1 tour of England (2014) under his belt. He was in good form back then, but he failed to score many runs in the overcast swinging conditions of England. Facing the likes of James Anderson and Stuart Broad also did not help. So, in 2018, it was a mental challenge for Virat Kohli more than anything to score runs in England.
Just like every other England tour, that one was a tough tour too. Kohli managed to score 149 in the first innings of the first test and followed it up with a 51 in the second innings. He scored a 97 and a 103 in the 3rd Test too. He also had a couple of 46, 49, and a 58 to go with them. Virat Kohli made 593 runs at an average of 59.3. It was one of the finest displays of batting by an overseas cricketer in England.
India lost the series 4-1, but the scoreline doesn’t do justice to the fight India put up in that series. In both the 1st and the 3rd Tests, India were inching towards victory. England won in the nail-biting moments. Kohli’s stats were great, but it was still very tough for India to win overseas. However, things were soon about to change.
Virat Kohli, the Leader – How He and His Team Stood Tall to Oppositions on their Homeground
While Virat Kohli had some demons to overcome with the bat, he was also simultaneously captaining Team India in all three formats. Test cricket was his biggest priority. India had been struggling to win a Test series abroad since MS Dhoni’s time. Be it the 0-4 whitewash in England, or the 0-4 whitewash in Australia, or the 0-1 loss in South Africa, or the 0-1 loss in New Zealand, India were struggling to win overseas, especially in SENA countries (South Africa, England, New Zealand, and Australia). This string of losses compelled MS Dhoni to prematurely retire from Test cricket, and Virat Kohli took over the reins.
As was obvious, India straightaway didn’t start winning overseas, since the team required some rebuilding, some restructuring, some rewiring, and some readjustment to the new roles. But there was something different about Kohli’s leadership. Even as India was losing, there was an astuteness in the players’ faces.
They were resolute in their approach and gave the opposition a serious run for their money. Whether it was the 0-2 loss in Australia in 2014 or the 1-2 loss against South Africa in 2018, India kept fighting. This was the new India, and this was Kohli’s India. It was only a matter of time until the efforts would soon bear fruit.
In 2018, a relatively young India toured Australia and dominated them on their shores. India won the series 2-1, but came very near to winning it 3-1. No other team had shown that level of dominance in Australia for a very long time, including India. With the bowling quartet of Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, Mohammad Shami, and Umesh Yadav, India rattled Australia in most innings. Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, KL Rahul, Ajinkya Rahane, and others steadied the ship with the bat. But most importantly, the Australian crowd got a taste of dominant Virat Kohli.
Virat Kohli was at his aggressive best, always cheering and egging his teammates on. A fiery hothead that he was, Kohli also never shied away from sledging the opposition. It was the dawn of a new Indian team in test cricket, one that dominated for a fair bit of time.
India won the Border-Gavaskar series again in 2020-21, this time with a much-depleted side. Virat Kohli played the first test match and went home to attend the birth of his first child, Vamika. India was skittled out for a paltry 36 in that Adelaide Test and were reeling behind in the series with 0-1. From there, with the majority of the players missing and Ajinkya Rahane becoming the stand-in captain, India won that series 2-1.
Later on, India toured England and continued their dominance in Test cricket. A very tight first Test, that India had every chance of winning, got washed away due to rain on the final day. It was a draw. The second Test match at Lord’s will be etched in cricketing history forever. India were on the verge of losing when Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Shami built a strong partnership. Both these tail-enders played aggressive innings with the bat, and then came out in the field and did the same with the ball.
With 60 overs left in the match, and England chasing a target of 272, they were bowled out for 120 in 51.5 overs. Virat Kohli’s words to his players, “Let’s give them 60 overs of hell,” will forever echo in every Indian cricket fan’s hearts. After this famous win, India lost at Leeds but bounced back and won at the Oval. After 4 tests, India were leading 2-1.
If not for the cancellation of the 5th test due to COVID-19, India may have even won the series 3-1. When the pending match was played next year in 2022, the structure for both teams was different. India, captained by Jasprit Bumrah for the first time, lost the match, and the series was drawn 2-2. England were on a roll then under the cumulative leadership-management role of Ben Stokes – Brendon McCullum.
India played under Virat Kohli for one last time in South Africa that year, when India lost the series 2-1. After having won the first test quite comfortably, India lost the next two. What followed the series was a series of complications between the BCCI and Kohli, which ultimately led to Kohli losing his captaincy in all formats of the game within a few months.
Post-Captaincy Virat, Dip in Form, and Early Retirement
Nevertheless, Virat Kohli continued to play for India as a batter and gave us some very delightful and important moments. Like his 186 against Australia in Ahmedabad and his 121 against West Indies in Port of Spain, both of which came in 2023. The latter was also his last test hundred.
Today, as Virat Kohli has retired from Test cricket, many former greats have congratulated him on a stellar career. From Sachin Tendulkar to Michael Vaughan to AB De Villiers to Yuvraj Singh to Virender Sehwag to many others, everyone congratulated him for a great career. His juniors, such as Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jasprit Bumrah, and others, also paid him tribute. They said that he inspired them to love Test cricket and do great things for India.
Amidst all these adulations and congratulations, Virat Kohli also made sure that he is remembered for the value and importance he put into Test cricket. It isn’t just these young cricketers, but also millions watching from home who got inspired by him. Even as he has retired from Test and T20I cricket, he continues to be a beacon of hope and inspiration for countless cricket fans watching across the globe. Virat Kohli is a brand in itself.
The good news remains that he will continue to play for India in ODIs, and hopefully bring home the 2027 ODI World Cup under Rohit Sharma’s captaincy.
