Virat Kohli announced retirement from test cricket one year ago today. Image Credit: Instagram/Virat Kohli
Virat Kohli Retirement: It has been exactly one year since Virat Kohli announced his retirement from test cricket. The former Team India skipper bid farewell to the longest format after playing 123 tests, leading the Indian team in 68 of these games. A poor dip in form in the last couple of years was like a blemish on what otherwise was a successful career both as a batter and as a captain. As the captain of the team, Kohli was the first Asian skipper to win a test series in Australia in 2018/19. His team, albeit without him, won the series once again in 2020/21. While he could not reach the elusive 10,000-run mark in the format, he won numerous games with the bat in hand as well.
On 12th May, 2025, Virat Kohli took to his social media accounts and announced his retirement from test cricket. The former Team India skipper took the decision after a poor home test series against New Zealand and an away tour to Australia. Against the Blackcaps, Kohli scored 93 runs in six innings as India was whitewashed and lost the first test series at home after 12 years. In Australia, in spite of a century in the first game, he only managed 190 runs in nine innings, with only 90 runs coming off the remaining innings.
Despite his superb record as a batter in the longest format, it was Virat Kohli’s captaincy that made him stand apart from the rest. Leading in 68 games, the most by an Indian captain, Kohli led the team with a degree of aggression that was not seen in Indian captains before him. His behaviour on the pitch was often called out by a section of fans as over the top, even though the team was winning.
| Player | Matches | Wins | Loss | Draws | Win Percentage | Win/Loss Ratio |
| Virat Kohli | 68 | 40 | 17 | 11 | 58.82% | 2.35 |
With multiple test series wins in Australia and leading the test series in England in 2021 before the last match was called off, it can be said without any shadow of doubt that Virat was the greatest Indian captain.
Virat Kohli was not an instant success in test cricket. The right-handed batter had his fair share of struggles, including a horror tour to England in 2014. However, it did not take much time for Kohli to bounce back. His highest score in England that year was only 39; in the next series, it was possibly the toughest assignment for the batter. India toured Australia under MS Dhoni’s captaincy. Kohli started the tour with twin centuries in Adelaide, where he was the stand-in skipper. He struck another hundred and a half-century in Melbourne before handed over the captaincy duties full-time in Sydney. At SCG, Kohli scored 147 runs in his first innings as captain before a fighting 46 in the fourth innings to draw the match.
| Player | Matches | Innings | Runs | Average | Highest Score | 50s/100s |
| Virat Kohli | 123 | 210 | 9,230 | 46.85 | 254* | 31/30 |
Kohli ended his career with 9,230 runs with the bat in hand, which included 30 centuries, seven of which he converted into double-hundreds. Kohli’s average dipped late in his career, ending at 46.85. Most of his memorable performances came away from India in Australia, England, and South Africa. These were the countries where historically Indian batters had not done well. In Australia, despite a poor last outing, Kohli scored more than 1,500 runs at an average of 46.72. In England, he scored 1,096 runs at 33.21. In the Rainbow Nation, Kohli played nine games and scored almost 900 runs at an average of 49.50.
Pragun is a passionate cricket follower and writer who deeply loves the game. Having completed his education with a degree in Journalism and Mass Communication, he has an experience of almost two years in diverse fields. He is known for his statistical and analytical articles. Pragun tries to bring life to his articles by adding a layer of enthusiasm from the perspective of a hardcore fan. Apart from writing cricket articles, he sometimes appears on YouTube videos on a friend’s podcast.
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