Virat Kohli has informed the BCCI of his intention to retire from Test cricket, ahead of the upcoming five-match series against England starting June 20, where he is likely to be part of the squad. Sources say Kohli has been discussing his plans with BCCI officials over the past month.
If Virat Kohli sticks to his decision, it will mark the end of a stellar 14-year Test career, during which he played 123 matches—including 68 as captain—and amassed 9,230 runs at an average of 46.85.
However, recent years haven’t been particularly productive for him in the longest format. His unbeaten century in the Perth Test in November 2024 was his first since July 2023, when he reached three figures against the West Indies in Port of Spain. Since hitting his career-best 254* against South Africa in Pune in 2019, Kohli’s average has dipped to 32.56 over the past two years, a significant fall from his peak average of 55.10.
Despite that, it’s understood that the team management and selectors expect his experience to be crucial on the tour, where India will also be playing under a new captain – Shubman Gill is the frontrunner to take over from Rohit Sharma following his retirement from Test cricket earlier this week.
Apart from Rohit, India are without R Ashwin, who retired from international cricket during the 2024-25 series in Australia. With Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane not in the mix at the moment, and Mohammed Shami’s form under scrutiny after his return from a long injury layoff, Kohli is among the only seniors around, along with Ravindra Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah.
Before Rohit replaced Kohli as India’s Test captain, India had won 40 of the 68 games in which Kohli led, losing just 17. The 40 wins makes Kohli India’s most successful Test captain of all time – MS Dhoni with 27 from 60 and Sourav Ganguly with 21 from 49 rank below him – and also places him at No. 4 on the overall list of captains with the most Test wins, behind Graeme Smith (53 from 109), Ricky Ponting (48 from 77) and Steve Waugh (41 from 57).
It was in England that Kohli had recorded one of his greatest highs as a Test batter, on the 2018 tour. He was the top run-getter across the two sides in the five Tests, aggregating 583 at an average of 59.30 with two centuries. That it came after he had scored just 134 runs in ten innings on the previous tour, in 2014, made the performance that much more special. That year, 2018, was also his best in terms of aggregate for a year, when he scored 1322 runs.
During his golden run, Virat Kohli maintained remarkable consistency, averaging 75.93 in 2016, 75.64 in 2017, 55.08 in 2018, and 68.00 in 2019. Between 2016 and 2018 alone, he amassed 3,596 runs in 35 Tests at an average of 66.59, scoring 14 centuries and eight fifties in 58 innings.
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