Virat Kohli retires from Test cricket, says ‘not easy, but it feels right’

With this comes to an end a Test career that spanned 123 matches — 68 of which he led India — over 14 years, scoring 9,230 runs at an average of 46.85.

Virat Kohli, India’s best batter since Sachin Tendulkar, has retired from Test cricket with immediate effect. Kohli, also India’s most successful captain, had reportedly communicated his wish to retire from Test cricket a while back and was in talks with the BCCI. But the 36-year-old former captain took to his official Instagram handle on Monday to announce his retirement, just over a month before India tour England for a five-Test series.

Virat Kohli kisses his bat after reaching a century. (AFP File Photo)

"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 the statement. "There's something deeply personal about playing in whites. The quiet grind, the long days, the small moments that no one sees but that stay with you forever.

"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. I'll always look back at my Test career with a smile."

With this comes to an end a Test career that spanned 123 matches—68 of which he led India—in 14 years, scoring 9230 runs at an average of 46.85. In three consecutive years (2016, 2017 and 2018), Kohli had scored over a 1000 runs each, aggregating 3596 runs in 35 Tests at an average of 66.59, with 14 hundreds and eight fifties in 58 innings. He made his debut in the West Indies in 2011 but not until 2012 did Kohli score his first hundred, at Adelaide.

Australia again was where Kohli shone in 2014-15, scoring hundred in both innings in Adelaide, before hitting hundreds in Melbourne and Sydney to aggregate 692 runs for the series at an average of 86.50. From that series till the home tour of Bangladesh in 2019-20, Kohli had romped his way to 5347 runs at an average of 63.65, laced with 21 hundreds in 90 innings. Since 2020 however, Kohli has scored only 2028 runs in 69 innings at an average of 30.72. Even poorer was Kohli’s run in the last 10 Tests, scoring 382—out of which 100* alone came in the Perth Test last year—runs in 19 innings at an average of 22.47.

In India, Kohli averages 55.58 in 55 Tests, better than the home averages of Tendulkar (52.67), Rahul Dravid (51.35), Sunil Gavaskar (50.16), Virender Sehwag (54.13), Chesteshwar Pujara (52.58) and VVS Laxman (51.6). Outside India, Kohli has a phenomenal average of 46.72 in Australia, with seven hundreds and four fifties. England wasn’t always a happy destination barring the 2018 tour when he scored 583 runs at an average of 59.30 with two centuries.

Under Kohli, India were No. 1 in Test cricket for five years and had also won their first-ever series win in Australia during the 2018-19 tour. As captain he had scored 20 hundreds, only second to Graeme Smith’s record of 25 hundreds as Test captain. Even when he didn’t score a century, Kohli’s willingness to tough it out on tricky pitches made him crucial to India’s survival on overseas tours. More significant was his decision to revive India’s fast bowling fortunes, consistently insisting on playing five bowlers abroad. Jasprit Bumrah made his debut under Kohli during the 2018 tour of South Africa, triggering a slow but steady turnaround where Mohammad Shami, Mohammad Siraj, Umesh Yadav and Ishant Sharma kept India in the hunt not only abroad but also at home.

Kohli retires less than a week after Rohit Sharma called time on his Test career, marking the end of an era for Indian cricket. It also almost completes the transition that started with Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane being slowly phased out and Ravichandran Ashwin retiring during the Australia tour last winter, leaving just Ravindra Jadeja as the highest capped player right now. Kohli retires with a captaincy record of 40 wins in 68 matches, losing just 17, making him the most successful Indian captain ahead of MS Dhoni (27 wins) and Sourav Ganguly (21 wins).