Virat Kohli Retirement: Retirements have often been talked about for years. Virat Kohli’s test retirement seems to be following suit and could very well be talked about much after he is retired from other formats or even the Indian Premier League (IPL). The former Team India skipper, in a podcast with Mayanti Langer, talked about his test retirement. He hinted towards how he was being questioned to prove his worth time and time again. Fans speculated if Indian national cricket team’s head coach, Gautam Gambhir, had any role to play. It was only a year ago when Kohli announced his retirement from the longest format of the game after having already retired from T20Is after winning the T20 World Cup in 2024.
WATCH: Did Virat Kohli blame Gautam Gambhir for test retirement?
Since the Royal Challengers Bengaluru released their latest podcast with Mayanti Langer and Virat Kohli, speculation has been doing the rounds about whether it was the Indian cricket team head coach, Gautam Gambhir, who pushed Virat Kohli towards retirement. The two Delhi-born cricketers have not seen eye-to-eye over the years; however, there is no confirmation as to whether it was Gambhir who pushed Kohli to retire from the longest format.
There was a lot of conjecture around Virat Kohli’s retirement, with multiple stories suggesting that external influences and disagreements with the team administration influenced his choice. In an interview with an RCB podcast, Kohli expressed his dissatisfaction with the way things turned out following India’s tour of Australia and said he did not want to remain in a setting where he felt pressured to show himself all the time. The former Indian skipper said, “My perspective is very clear – if I feel I can add value to the environment I’m part of, and the environment feels it too, then I’ll be there. But if I’m made to feel that I have to prove my worth and value, I’m not in that space anymore.”
Virat Kohli announced his retirement from test cricket on the 12th of May in 2025. His last series in red-ball cricket was the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 2024/25 in Australia. He ended his career having played 123 games in the longest format. He scored 9,230 runs, falling short of the elusive 10,000-run mark. He struck 30 centuries in test cricket, with him scoring the 30th hundred on his last tour.
What are Virat Kohli plans for ODI World Cup 2027?
By stating that he would “love” to play in the 2027 ODI World Cup in South Africa, Virat Kohli also gave a clear indication that he would continue playing ODI cricket. After retiring from the other two forms, the Indian batter responded to rumors about his ODI career’s future. Kohli stated in the podcast that he is still very driven to keep playing for India in the 50-over format. In the 2023 ODI World Cup, Kohli had an incredible performance, winning player of the tournament and being the top scorer.
Addressing the rumours, Kohli said, “I mean, this 27 (ODI World Cup 2027) chat and all that, honestly, for me, it is like, we are at like mid 26. But I’ve been asked so many times, do you want to play 27?”
How has Virat Kohli performed in IPL 2026 for RCB?
Virat Kohli has continued his pristine form in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026. The former skipper for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru has scored 484 runs in 14 innings, averaging 53.77 while striking at over 165. His tally of runs included a splendid century among a few other match-winning knocks. Kohli scored his ninth hundred in the IPL, extending his lead at the top of the leaderboard for the most hundreds in IPL. What made his century special was that it came on the back of getting dismissed for two ducks in a row.
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.
