Is Virat Kohli Retiring From Test Cricket: The Indian cricket team fans woke up on May 10, 2025, with the shocking reported news that former skipper Virat Kohli has apparently “communicated his desire to retire from Test cricket to the BCCI.”
This news comes just a few days after current captain Rohit Sharma announced his retirement from Test cricket. If Kohli indeed bids adieu to Test cricket, India will be without two of their four senior-most players—with Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammed Shami still being active and key parts of the Test XI—in the upcoming five-match Test in England.
While the IPL 2025 has been suspended for at least one week amid the rising Indo-Pak tension, the England tour is expected to go ahead as scheduled. The first India vs England Test match is slated for June 20 in Leeds.
Now, Kohli has reportedly dropped this huge bombshell. However, according to reports, it’s not a sudden decision, and he’s been in talks with the board members for a while about this.
Is Virat Kohli Retiring From Test Cricket?
According to a report in ESPNcricinfo, Virat Kohli has been having conversations with BCCI officials about his decision to retire from Test cricket. However, the team management and selectors expect his experience to be crucial on the tour and hence an official announcement hasn’t been made yet.
This decision from Kohli could have been spurred by his dipping form in recent years, with the last Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia having left him with experiencing “the most intense kind of disappointment”. In the BGT 2024/25, Kohli managed only 190 runs in nine innings at an average of 23.75. He started the tour with a second-innings century in Perth, but then his runs fell off the cliff. Kohli was out eight times outside-edging behind.
“If you ask me the intensity of how disappointed I’ve been, the most recent Australia tour would be the one that’s most fresh. So it might feel the most intense to me,” Kohli said in March.
“For a long time, the tour of England in 2014 bothered me the most. But I can’t look at it that way. I might not have an Australia tour again in four years. I don’t know. You have to make peace with whatever’s happened in your life.”
Virat Kohli Test cricket stats:
Virat Kohli, who made his Test debut in 2011, has amassed 9230 runs at an average of 46.85 in 123 Tests. He is hailed as India’s most successful Test captain. Leading India in 68 Test matches, India won 40 of them, the most under any Indian skipper and the fourth-most in the world, behind Graeme Smith (53 from 109), Ricky Ponting (48 from 77), and Steve Waugh (41 from 57).
Kohli hit his peak between 2015 and 2019. From December 2014 to the end of 2019, Kohli scored over 5000 runs at an average of 63, hitting 21 centuries in that period out of 30 total career Test hundreds.
He propelled India to the No. 1 ranking in Test cricket. Under Kohli, India won their first-ever Test series in Australia in 2018/19 and became a world-beating team. Kohli sat atop for the major part of India’s dominating home run in Test cricket.
Get IPL 2025 Live Score, Team Updates along with the Latest Player News at IceCric.News and Follow for Live Updates – Facebook & Instagram.
