Kohli announces retirement from Test cricket

After 14 years and 123 Tests, it’s the end of an era in Indian cricket as Virat Kohli has officially announced his retirement from Test cricket.

Reports of Kohli retiring from Tests first emerged last week, but it was being speculated that the BCCI were looking to convince the former skipper to extend his career. However, that will not be the case. Kohli took to Instagram today to confirm that he will be calling it quits from red-ball cricket with immediate effect.

“It’s been 14 years since I first wore the baggy blue in Test cricket. Honestly, I never imagined the journey this format would take me on. It’s tested me, shaped me, and taught me lessons I’ll carry for life,” Kohli wrote.

“There’s something deeply personal about playing in whites. The quiet grind, the long days, the small moments that no one sees but that stay with you forever. As I step away from this format, it’s not easy – but it feels right.

“I’ve given it everything I had, and it’s given me back so much more than I could’ve hoped for.

I’m walking away with a heart full of gratitude – for the game, for the people I shared the field with, and for every single person who made me feel seen along the way.

“I’ll always look back at my Test career with a smile.”

Kohli signs off with 9,230 runs to his name in the longest format. He scored 30 Test hundreds, and he signs off as India’s most successful Test skipper ever. Kohli led India in 68 Tests in total, with the team winning a whopping 40 of those games. Under Kohli, India became a force to be reckoned with in SENA countries for the first time in the country’s history, and in 2018, under Kohli’s leadership, India won a Test series away in Australia for the first time ever.

And the team, between 2015 and 2021, were the most dominant home side in the sport’s history, winning 24 Tests while losing just 2, emerging victorious in every single bilateral series they played at home.