Virat Kohli: India batter announces retirement from Test cricket days after captain Rohit Sharma
Former India captain Virat Kohli has announced his retirement from Test cricket; Kohli scored 9,230 runs in 123 Tests to stand fourth in India's all-time list of Test run-scorers
Monday 12 May 2025 14:29, UK
India batter Virat Kohli announced his retirement from Test cricket, bringing down the curtain on a sparkling career in the longest format just days after captain Rohit Sharma did the same.
The 36-year-old's decision comes the week after Rohit Sharma, who succeeded Kohli as skipper, also retired from the red-ball format and a month before India start a five-match Test series in England.
"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 said on Instagram.
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"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 scored 9,230 runs in 123 Tests to stand fourth in India's all-time list of Test run-scorers.
He had already told the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) that he wished to retire from Test cricket ahead of this summer's series in England.
It is understood the 36-year-old told chief selector Ajit Agarkar in April of his desire to step away before the start of the 2025-2027 World Test Championship cycle in June.
After India's T20 World Cup triumph last June, Kohli retired from the format but he is still expected to continue in ODIs, where he has amassed a record-breaking 51 centuries.
Kohli, the most followed Asian and cricketer on Instagram with more than 271 million followers, made 30 Test tons and was often held up as one of the four greatest batters of the modern age alongside England's Joe Root, Australia's Steve Smith and New Zealand's Kane Williamson.
He becomes the first of the 'Fab Four' to bow out of Tests, with his decision coming hot on the heels of India captain Rohit Sharma, who succeeded Kohli as skipper in 2022, standing down and retiring last week.
Karthik: Kohli a massive loss
Former India wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik, speaking to Sky Sports News:
"It's massive in the context of not just Indian cricket but Test cricket. We all know the most-watched format is definitely the T20s.
"In many ways, Virat Kohli was the frontrunner of how Test cricket needs to be played and how much it needs to be valued, and we're losing someone at a very important point in the whole cricketing eco-system because we're in a conundrum where Test cricket stands - and Kohli was one of the most important pivots in the last decade or so.
"He played Test cricket in a certain way and made people enjoy the game. Losing someone like him from an Indian Test team point of view is very hard, but most importantly in the broader context of cricket it's a massive loss not seeing him play anywhere in whites."
Asked who can replace Kohli, Karthik replied: "I don't see anyone coming close to replacing him because what he's achieved in the last decade and a half is very hard to do right now, and with the way the game is moving I feel a lot of people are giving importance to T20 cricket, but he was phenomenal because he liked Test cricket the most and he felt that was the most valued format.
"The amount of work he put into that was so much and that's how the results came through."
England vs India Test schedule
All games at 11am UK and Ireland; all live on Sky Sports
- First Test: Friday June 20-Tuesday June 24 - Headingley
- Second Test: Wednesday July 2-Sunday July 6 - Edgbaston
- Third Test: Thursday July 10-Monday July 14 - Lord's
- Fourth Test: Wednesday July 23-Sunday July 27 - Emirates Old Trafford
- Fifth Test: Thursday July 31-Monday August 4 - The Kia Oval
