Virat Kohli retires from Test cricket

Virat Kohli has decided to retire from Test cricket. He amassed 9230 runs in 123 matches at an average of 46.85 in the game’s longest format.

“It’s been 14 years since I first wore the baggy blue in Test cricket. Honestly, I never imagined the journey this format would take me on. It’s tested me, shaped me, and taught me lessons I’ll carry for life,” Kohli said in an Instagram post.

“As I step away from this format, it’s not easy — but it feels right. I’ve given it everything I had, and it’s given me back so much more than I could’ve hoped for.

“I’m walking away with a heart full of gratitude — for the game, for the people I shared the field with, and for every single person who made me feel seen along the way,” he said.

“I’ll always look back at my Test career with a smile. #269, signing off.”

Kohli made his Test debut against the West Indies in 2011, eventually becoming the skipper three years later. He led the country in 68 Tests, most by an Indian, losing just 17 (25 per cent) of them.

With a win percentage of 58.82 per cent (40 wins, 11 draws), the batter remains India’s most successful red-ball captain.

Under Kohli’s captaincy, India won a series in Australia for the first time, in 2019.

His last Test was also in Australia (Sydney), in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, earlier this year — a game that the hosts won by six wickets, ending the series 3-1 in their favour.

Test stats off Virat Kohli:
Matches: 123
Runs scored: 9230
Highest: 254 not out vs South Africa, 2019
Average: 46.85
100s: 30
50s: 31
Kohli had already retired from T20Is after India won the 2024 T20 World Cup.

The decision comes days after Rohit Sharma announced his Test retirement, with Shubman Gill emerging as the leading contender to replace him as captain.

Kohli’s retirement means India would travel to England with a depleted middle order for the five-match Test series next month.

In his 14-year Test career, Kohli went on to become the fourth-highest run-getter for India, behind Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sunil Gavaskar.

However, the 36-year-old has lately struggled for consistency, especially in his last tour to Australia. He hit just century and scored 190 runs in nine innings Down Under.

“... if you ask me the intensity of how disappointed I felt, for me, the most recent Australia tour would be the one that’s most fresh. So it might feel the most intense to me,” Kohli later said in a Royal Challengers Bengaluru Summit.

“For a long period of time the tour of England in 2014 was the thing that bothered me the most,” he said. “But I can’t look at it that way. I might not have an Australia tour again in me, in four years’ time, I don’t know,” he had added.

Source: Sportstar 
--Agencies