Virat Kohli Announces Retirement From Test Cricket- Know King Kohli's Records

Veteran Indian Batter & former test skipper Virat Kohli has bid adieu to the red-ball format with immediate effect. The former Indian skipper ends up with 123 test caps, scoring 9230 runs at an average of 46.85.

Kohli leaves the test arena as the most successful Indian test captain after taking over the reins from MS Dhoni in 2014. India was then ranked 7th. Kohli led the side for 8 years, helping team India become the number 1 ranked side and winning the Test mace five times. Kohli stepped down from test captaincy in 2022 after his side lost against South Africa (2-1).

Kohli announced his decision to retire through an Instagram post.

Kohli's Retirement Post

''It's been 14 years since I wore the baggy blue in the red-ball format. Honestly, I didn't imagine that the journey would be so long. The journey wasn't easy, there were ebbs & flows, the journey has taught me, tested me & given me some important lessons that I carry on with me in life.

I have a deep connection with the whites, the hard grinds to the small passages in the game that no one knows, to the players you've shared the field. As I retire from test cricket, it is not easy for me to make this decision, but it feels like the right call to make at this moment.

The format has given me enough to cherish & more than I could've hoped for. I walk away with my heart filled with gratitude. I've had great moments with the people I shared the dressing room with & every single person who has seen me play till now. I'll always look at my test career with a smile," Kohli Concluded

Kohli's decision to retire from test cricket just comes on the heels of the retirements of Rohit Sharma & Ravichandran Ashwin, marking a full-scale transition that hadn't taken place since the retirements of VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar & later Virender Sehwag.

Kohli had informed about his desire to BCCI to quit the red-ball format. A top BCCI official is known to have had talks with the Indian batter. But it looks like the final call was of his to take.

Kohli made his Test debut against the West Indies at Sabina Park in 2011, months after he was part of an ODI World Cup-winning team. After a challenging run to the longest format in his first year, he found his groove in 2012 with a masterful 116 against Australia in Adelaide, a venue that would become special to him.

Virat Kohli Retires!

On India's next tour in 2014, he returned to the South Australian capital to score twin hundreds in a narrow defeat, a performance that also saw him lead the side as stand-in captain. That leadership role soon became permanent after MS Dhoni's retirement in Melbourne a few weeks later, with Kohli officially taking over in Sydney.

Kohli's finest knocks came at a tough pitch of Perth at the Optus stadium when he scored match match-winning ton against the likes of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins & Nathan Lyon. Under Virat's captaincy India won a test series on the Australian soil for the first time.

Until June of 2016, Virat didn't have a double-ton in tests. The monkey finally came off in July when he scored a double ton against the West Indies. Kohli went onto add 6 more double tons in his kitty becoming the only batter to score most double tons for India in test cricket.

In the later stages of 2019, Kohli's form dipped after scoring a brilliant ton in the pink-ball test against Bangladesh. It took Kohli 3.5 years to score a test ton. Kohli ended his lean run of form with a dazzling hundred at Ahmedabad against Australia in the BGT in 2023.

The star batter from Delhi played his last test match for India in the 5th test at Sydney in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy last year.

Virat Kohli Test Batting Records

• Most runs in a calendar year by an Indian batter - 2012, 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2023
• Highest score by an Indian captain: 254* vs South Africa (2019)
• Most centuries as an Indian captain: 20
• Most runs as India captain: 5864
• Most double hundreds for India: 7
• Most double hundreds as captain: 6
• Most wins as Test captain of India: 40
• Double centuries in consecutive series: 4
• Highest rating points earned by an Indian in men’s batting rankings: 937 (2018)
• First Asian captain to win a Test series in Australia (2018-19)
• Most consecutive Test series wins as captain: 9
• Most hundreds by an Indian in Australia: 7