Cricket Icon Virat Kohli announces retirement from Test Cricket

Cricket Icon and one of the most passionate supporters of Test cricket in the world, Virat Kohli, announced his retirement from Test cricket. Virat announced his retirement from cricket's longest format -Test cricket- in a social media post on 12 May 2025.

Virat played his last Test match against Australia at Sydney in January 2025.

His retirement comes after Indian cricket captain Rohit Sharma announced his retirement from Test cricket on 7 May 2025.

Both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli had announced their retirement from the game's shortest format -T20 internationals -in June 2024 after India won the 9th ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in 2024.

 However, like Rohit Sharma, Virat will be available for India's One-day internationals (ODIs) and will play in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

14 Illustrious Years of Test Career 

Virat’s retirement brings down the curtain on a 14-year illustrious career in Test cricket.

Virat Kohli played his first test match for India against the West Indies at Jamaica in the 2011 tour of the West Indies.

• He announced his arrival in international cricket with a brilliant century in the 2011 Adelaide Test against Australia. 
• It was his first century in Test cricket, though India lost the series 4-0.
• Kohli’s first highly successful Test series was against Australia in the 2014-15 Border-Gavaskar Trophy Series. Kohli scored a century in each innings of the Adelaide Test, then again in the Melbourne and Sydney Tests. He scored 692 runs with an average of 86.50 in the series. 
• His golden period in Test cricket was from 2016-19, where his average in Test cricket was 75.93 in 2016, 75.64 in 2017, 55.08 in 2018, and 68.00 in 2019. 
• After 2020, Virat struggled in Test cricket. Kohli scored over 2000 runs in 39 Test matches at a poor average of 30.72.

His Record in Test Cricket  

• In 123 Tests, he scored 9230 runs, with an average of 46.85. His highest score was 254 not out against South Africa in Pune in 2019.
• He scored 30 Test hundreds and is fourth in the list, just behind Sachin Tendulkar (51 hundreds), Rahul Dravid (36), and Sunil Gavaskar (34). 
• Kohli has also scored seven double hundreds, the most by an Indian.
• As an Indian captain, Kolhi scored 20 centuries, the most by an Indian captain.
•  Sunil Gavaskar is in second place with 11 centuries as captain.

Most Successful Indian Captain 

Virat Kohli took over the Indian team captaincy from Mahendra Singh Dhoni in 2014.

• He is the most successful Indian captain with 40 wins,17 losses and 11 draws in 68th Test matches, he captained the Indian team.
• Mahendra Singh Dhoni is in second place with 27 wins from 60 Tests, and Sourav Ganguly is in third place with 21 wins from 49 Tests.
• Kohli is the fourth most successful Test captain in the world after South African Graeme Smith (53), Australian Ricky Ponting (48), and Steve Waugh (41).
• Under Kohli's captaincy, India won a Test series in Australia for the first time. The Indian team defeated Australia 2-1 in the 2018-19 Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
• He captained India in 11 Test series at home and won all of them.

Also Read : Rohit Sharma announces retirement from Test Cricket, will play ODI