Just 5 days after Rohit Sharma introduced his retirement from Test cricket in an Instagram story, Virat Kohli adopted swimsuit with a put up on the social media platform to convey an end to a decorated Test profession.
The 36-year-old’s announcement appeared to be on the playing cards after it emerged that he had advised the selectors of his want to step away from the longest format forward of India’s five-Test sequence in England starting on June 20.
Having made his Test debut in 2011, Kohli amassed 9230 runs in 123 matches at an common of 46.85, together with 30 centuries and 31 fifties. While he reached phenomenal highs as a No. 4 batter from 2016 to 2019, particularly, his slide within the final 5 years was steep. Since January 2020, he averaged 30.72 in 39 Tests with simply three tons. The last straw was the current five-Test tour of Australia, the place he solely mustered 190 runs in 9 innings regardless of scoring a century within the second innings of the primary Test in Perth.
“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 wrote in an Instagram put up on Monday (May 12, 2025) afternoon.
“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. #269, signing off.”
Though Kohli hasn’t managed to be part of the elusive 10,000-run membership – Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sunil Gavaskar are the one Indians to have achieved that feat – he leaves behind an enduring legacy as a Test cricketer.
Besides racking up all of the runs that he did over the course of a 14-year profession, he additionally performed an instrumental function as captain from 2014 to 2022, putting a powerful emphasis on health and creating a core of potent tempo bowlers. With 40 victories in 68 Tests as India captain, he’s statistically the nation’s most profitable skipper.
Among his most memorable achievements as a pacesetter shall be India’s first-ever sequence triumph on Australian soil in 2018/19.
Now that each Kohli and Rohit will now not don the whites, the selectors could have to repose their religion in a younger, inexperienced batting unit because the crew embarks on a difficult tour of England in a month’s time.
Published – May 12, 2025 12:15 pm IST
