World cricket in shock as Virat Kohli calls it quits on Test cricket

Virat Kohli announced his retirement from Test cricket via social media on 12 May 2025, bringing the curtain down on one of the all-time great Test batters. Kohli possessed an incredible sense of patience and discipline in crafting most of his Test innings, allowing his strokeplay to take over once he was into the 30s and 40s if his team was in a good position. 

The announcement comes less than a week after Test captain Rohit Sharma announced his own retirement from Test cricket. Opener Shubman Gill is the likely replacement as captain for India, who are set to take on England in a five-Test series in England that kicks-off in the middle of June. Replacing these two legendary batters will be a tough task for India, although they are blessed with plenty of batting talent at present.

The 36-year-old Kohli was averaging on or around the 50-run mark ahead of the Covid-19 break, but he never truly recovered his greatest form when Test cricket resumed, although he continued to add valuable contributions to his side. The master batter ended with 9203 Test runs (ave 46.85) at an impressive strike-rate of 55.57. 

Kohli knocked up 30 centuries and 31 half-centuries, and Kohli finished joint-fourth on the list of most double-centuries in Test cricket, recording seven. Don Bradman (12), Kumar Sangakkara (11) and Brian Lara (9) finished above him, while countrymen Virender Sehwag and Sashin Tendulkar both scored six.  

Kohli's best series came against the mighty Australia in 2014-15, the Delhi-born batter scoring 692 runs in the series at an average of 86.50, with four hundreds, on responsive Aussie pitches. His highest averages were against Sri Lanka (67.8) and South Africa (54.15), while he struggled most against New Zealand (38.36), England (42.36) and Australia (43.37).

Kohli’s most prolific years were from 2016 to 2018, scoring over 1000 Test runs in each of those calendar years, the only years he achieved that feat.

His Test debut came against the West Indies in 2011, Kohli scoring 4 and 15 in a low-scoring match at Kingston that India won by 63 runs. His last Test came at the start of 2025 on a wicked Sydney pitch that offered 185 as the highest innings score of the match, with Australia claiming a six-wicket win. 

Kohli’s contribution was a dogged 69-ball score of 17 in the first innings, but could manage just six in the second innings.