Virat Kohli retires from Test cricket

[Ultimate_Game]

1 minute ago, Gollum said:

Latest reports say Shami is going to retire before the England series. He is struggling to complete his run-up in nets. 

 

Father time. 

 

Only Jaddu is left standing. 

 

Shami is done. Sad to see him struggle and a big loss for us. We need some pacers ASAP as it's Bumrah and a bunch of newbies. Need a couple of pacers to emerge and take on the mantle.

[deepdynamo]

He could have completed 10k runs last year itself and then call it a day.

 

Lost his hunger for test runs last year specially and that hurt both his final average and final runs tally.

 

Overall, a fine career. 

[Suhaan]

Lots of people will retire,Starc may as well retire after this Ashes ,early 2026

[Gollum]

Mama will wait for BD, SL, WI, Pak tours, get his average to 60 and then retire as the statistical GOAT. 

 

Root will try for the record runs tally, so no retirement anytime soon. 

 

That leaves Smith. 4 100s in his last 5 tests !!!!!

 

[Texan]

After everything is said and done, Virat Kohli was a very good Test cricketer, one of the few who could command a place in all 3 formats deservingly for a long time!

 

Kohli's career peak between 2016-2019 probably doesn't have any parallel in Indian cricket where he was undoubtedly our best all-format cricketer. His Test career soared during that time and he truly lived up to his potential. He was at that time considered one of the best 4 batters in the World and managed to score runs wherever he went. He is also one of those rare Indian captains who performed better as a batsman as captain than when he was not captain. 

 

Unfortunately, his run drought after that peak was also very long and very frustrating. His reluctance to play domestic cricket and his habit of picking and choosing matches and tournaments he plays made it appear like he was not giving enough importance to his own high standards for Test cricket.

 

I am happy that he called time on his career, albeit a little late. Ideally, it should have come about 2 years ago at least.

 

I also now have hopes that we will go into England with a new upcoming team that can perform without the baggage of the past. Whether they can compete or not is a different story, but at least we get to see a glimpse of the future.

[Texan]

7 hours ago, kosingh said:

What a strange career. I wonder where he ends on India's greatest test batters list. Probably 6th-7th?

Definitely outside the top 5. Probably in the top 10.

[Chaos]

14 minutes ago, Texan said:

Definitely outside the top 5. Probably in the top 10.

Obviously god at no.1, dravid at 2, sehwag at 3, gavaskar is too slow for my liking but he can take 4th place n then one and only vvs laxman, real deal this guy n underperformed. 

[Ultimate_Game]

30 minutes ago, Texan said:

Definitely outside the top 5. Probably in the top 10.

 

14 minutes ago, Chaos said:

Obviously god at no.1, dravid at 2, sehwag at 3, gavaskar is too slow for my liking but he can take 4th place n then one and only vvs laxman, real deal this guy n underperformed. 

 

Gavaskar (c)

Sehwag

Dravid

Tendulkar

VVS

Pant (wk)

Jadeja

Kapil

Zaheer or Srinath/Ashwin or Kumble (In SENA, go with Zaheer or Srinath. In subcontinent go with Ashwin or Kumble)

Shami

Bumrah

 

This is my ATG Test XI. Maybe Kohli can replace VVS but IMO VVS has played way too many ATG knocks to be left out.

[Laaloo]

Hopefully Thala retires from Test Cricket as well  @velu

[JazzyB]

Credit to Virat for retiring gracefully with no fan fair or asking for send off or dragging to reach milestones like 10k runs. unlike some others who were selfish and wanted proper send off and dragging career at the detriment of team to achieve personal milestones like 200 tests or 100 hundreds.

[Cricketics]

I must add India has lost not just a good test cricketer but a great test cricketer. The role of a test cricket playsd is not just to make

big runs ( he did that at times too), but to also show fire for 5 days straight on the field. The energy showed by him saw never Aussies and English angry and upset. Something not much done by any overseas cricketer ever in those countries. Kohli’s energy rubbed on other players. Look at what is colleagues and other young guys are saying today for him as well. Most of them talk about the energy because they know test cricket is not yur t20. Its not easy to survie there tofay for so long with three formats around. 

 

Test cricket has been dying and he single handedly provided that energy to this game by making it his pinnacle.

 

He gave so much to this formaf that he finally felt spent now and probably content as well with his effort. He would have loved to continue but too much energy spent on those wicket falls, aggression, punching the air,  relentless time spending to give it all for so many years in white finaly took a toll on him. That 46 test average will not define him. He will go down as one of the most complete test cricketers who not just batted well, but gave it all on field till the last ball of the game was bowled. 
 

 

 

[Serpico]

1 hour ago, JazzyB said:

Credit to Virat for retiring gracefully with no fan fair or asking for send off or dragging to reach milestones like 10k runs. unlike some others who were selfish and wanted proper send off and dragging career at the detriment of team to achieve personal milestones like 200 tests or 100 hundreds.

He got kicked out though. Delhi Ranji coach said that Virat wanted to play in England tour, but according to the latest reports bcci told him that he doesn't fit in the test team anymore.

 

Sachin dragged his career for 2 years, kohli dragged it for 5 years and even then BCCI had to step in and tell him that he won't be selected no more, for him to retire 

[singhvivek141]

16 minutes ago, Serpico said:

He got kicked out though. Delhi Ranji coach said that Virat wanted to play in England tour, but according to the latest reports bcci told him that he doesn't fit in the test team anymore.

 

Sachin dragged his career for 2 years, kohli dragged it for 5 years and even then BCCI had to step in and tell him that he won't be selected no more, for him to retire 

Heard the news that he was asked if he would be available for the entire next WTC cycle. Kohli couldn't confirm that...hence he was told that they're looking for a team for next WTC.

[singhvivek141]

9 hours ago, Gollum said:

Latest reports say Shami is going to retire before the England series. He is struggling to complete his run-up in nets. 

 

Father time. 

 

Only Jaddu is left standing. 

Won't be surprised.

Shami though keeps on saying that he will play till 2027, but I seriously doubt with his real age...he is already around 37-38.

 

Since 2022-23 onwards Shami has been on injections....his pace has went down.

[New guy]

3 hours ago, JazzyB said:

Credit to Virat for retiring gracefully with no fan fair or asking for send off or dragging to reach milestones like 10k runs. unlike some others who were selfish and wanted proper send off and dragging career at the detriment of team to achieve personal milestones like 200 tests or 100 hundreds.

Sachin played barely a year and more after his God like form. 

 

His per year average from 2007 was 56, 48, 68, 78 and 47. Then in 2012 he had bad form for one single year, played some matches in 2013 and retired. So his bad form was just over a year

 

Meanwhile kohli has been averaging 30 with only 3 100s since last FIVE years

 

Sachin had one of the least "dragging on" in the history of indian cricket. Have some shame when talking about "dragging" things.

[coffee_rules]

Average 46.85.  
 
 

Somebody puts him in the same sentence as Tendulkar, Dravid, Sehwag, Gavaskar or any Test greats, I will send a supari to L Bishnoi.  He is worse than Pujara in Test cricket among Indian bats

 

 

Edited May 13, 2025 by coffee_rules

[Suhaan]

1 hour ago, singhvivek141 said:

Won't be surprised.

Shami though keeps on saying that he will play till 2027, but I seriously doubt with his real age...he is already around 37-38.

 

Since 2022-23 onwards Shami has been on injections....his pace has went down.

Slowly ,all of them are quitting before CWC27

It is right,CWC is almost 2.5 years away and they know they can't continue

This  period must be used to the tune the main guys who are certain to play then

 

[Ultimate_Game]

13 minutes ago, Suhaan said:

Slowly ,all of them are quitting before CWC27

It is right,CWC is almost 2.5 years away and they know they can't continue

This  period must be used to the tune the main guys who are certain to play then

 

 

IMO BCCI should kick all of them out of ODIs as well. The WC is 2.5 years away and enough time to build a team. You can't win the WC with over the hill oldies who barely play anything throughout the year. It's like carrying Dhoni to the WC.

[Ultimate_Game]

3 hours ago, JazzyB said:

Credit to Virat for retiring gracefully with no fan fair or asking for send off or dragging to reach milestones like 10k runs. unlike some others who were selfish and wanted proper send off and dragging career at the detriment of team to achieve personal milestones like 200 tests or 100 hundreds.

 

"Gracefully" 

 

Averaging 30 over the last 5 years and the worst no. 4 batter across all the teams and you say retiring "gracefully" 

[nevada]

12 hours ago, deepdynamo said:

He could have completed 10k runs last year itself and then call it a day.

 

Lost his hunger for test runs last year specially and that hurt both his final average and final runs tally.

 

Overall, a fine career. 

What's the big deal about 10k? It's a meaningless statistic for a player who has been like a ghost of his former self for years, a burden on the team and fodder for memes. I don't think he lost his hunger - he is very much hungry and desperate but his ability and skills have deserted him totally.  He couldn't achieve a last Hurrah like Dravid or Tendulkar, and realising that carrying on as a weakling is of no use, he has stepped aside.