Batting great Virat Kohli yesterday announced his immediate retirement from Test cricket, just days before India name their squad for a tour to England.
Kohli, who scored 9,230 runs in 123 matches at an average of 46.85, posted his decision on Instagram five days after India captain Rohit Sharma called time on his own Test career.
Since making his debut in 2011, Kohli struck 30 hundreds and 31 fifties with a highest score of 254 not out, mainly batting at number four in the order.
Photo: AFP
“It’s been 14 years since I first wore the baggy blue in Test cricket,” the 36-year-old Kohli posted on his official feed, which has 271 million followers.
“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,” he said. “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.”
An inspirational figure, Kohli was India’s most successful Test captains with 40 wins and 17 defeats in 68 matches before stepping down from the role in 2022. The next best are Mahendra Singh Dhoni with 27 wins from 60 and Sourav Ganguly with 21 from 49.
“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,” Kohli said. “I’ll always look back at my Test career with a smile.”
The fiercely competitive Kohli’s declining form in the five-day game might have prompted his decision to call it a day. After averaging close to 55 at his peak between 2011 and 2019, he could muster only 32.56 over the past 24 months.
Kohli’s last Test was in Sydney in January when India lost the match and with it the series 3-1 to Australia.
Apart from an unbeaten century in the second innings of the first Test in Perth, Kohli managed just 90 runs from eight innings in the five-Test series.
The 36-year-old Kohli was part of the “Fab Four” quartet of batting greats who dominated Test cricket over the past decade, alongside Steve Smith of Australia, Kane Williamson of New Zealand and Joe Root of England.
Nicknamed “King Kohli,” he was India’s batting backbone across three international formats and ended his Twenty20 career with a match-winning innings in his team’s ICC T20 World Cup final victory in Barbados last year.
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