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If Virat Kohli eventually retires from test cricket, then it will end a beautiful journey of a remarkable test career of 14 years. Virat has played 123 Tests out of which 68 were as captain of the test team. In 123 tests Virat has scored 9230 runs at a brilliant average of 46.85 with 31 half centuries and 30 centuries. In this wonderful journey in test cricket, Virat has broken several records. Both as a test batter and as a captain, Kohli's legacy will be unmatched. Even the batting maestro wasn’t in great form over the past couple of years especially in test cricket still the records which he has made will be tough to suppress.
The world has seen many great captains but Virat Kohli as a test captain was on a different level. After he got the test captaincy in 2014, Kohli revolutionised the fast bowling department. Kohli alongside the then Head Coach Ravi Shastri gave complete freedom to the fast bowlers to perform especially in overseas conditions. In countries like Australia and South Africa, Kohli sacrificed a batsman and played with an extra bowler and results started to show immediately. India won a test series for the first time against Australia down under in Kohli’s captaincy and remained n.o 1 test team of the world for a long time. Currently Kohli is playing in the IPL for RCB and he is in great form. He scored 505 runs in 11 matches with an extraordinary average of 63.13.
Most of the people were anticipating this will be Kohli’s last Australia as he was already 36. All eyes were on Virat Kohli. He started the tour brilliantly with a fantastic century in the second innings against Australia in Perth. But things went downhill for Kohli after that ton in the Australia tour. He never looked settled against the likes of Starc, Cummins and Boland. He got out to similar deliveries nicking off outside the off stump caught in the slips. Kohli has told recently he might not have another Australia tour in himself. In the RCB Innovation Lab Indian Sports Summit, Kohli said “ I might not have another Australia tour in me, so I am at peace with whatever happened in the past.”
On the 12th of May, a few days after there had been reports of Virat Kohli wanting to retire from test cricket, the right-handed batter announced his decision to call it quits. He took to his Instagram account to let the fans know about his decision.
In his post, Kohli talked about how it was a difficult option to retire from the longest format. However, given his struggles in the past few years had been pretty poor, he probably had to step away from the format sooner rather than later. He talked about the gratitude he will have while walking away from test cricket in his post.
Kohli’s decision to retire comes a few weeks before India’s tour to England. The BCCI, which had tried to stop the former Indian skipper from retiring, now find itself in a tough position to not only find a replacement for Rohit Sharma, but also needs to find a batter replacement for someone like Kohli.
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