In a news that has set social media ablaze, Virat Kohli has officially announced his retirement from Test cricket. The veteran batter took to Instagram and penned an emotional goodbye note to the format he loves the most - Test cricket. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) failed to convince Kohli to reverse his decision, as the star batter ends his stellar Test career with 9230 runs from 123 Tests with an average of 46.85.
As soon as Kohli announced his decision, fans were in a state of shock and were failing to control their emotions. They were hoping BCCI would be successful in reversing the decision, but the inevitable happened.
Virat Kohli falls 770 runs short of 10,000 runs, bows out as India's fourth highest run-getter in Test cricket
While Virat Kohli has often said in several interviews that records do not mean anything to him as long as he is making the team win games, any batter in world cricket will be proud of 10,000 Test runs. Kohli, who always loved Test cricket and played passionately, has fallen short of just 770 runs.
The Australia tour Down Under might be one of the reasons for Kohli's decision to retire from Test cricket. The 36-year-old scored just 186 runs from five Test matches. Although he scored a stunning hundred in the first Test in Perth, the right-hand batter failed to show the same consistency in the remaining four Test matches. However, there is no taking away from the fact that Kohli will go down as one of the best Test batters of India.
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He ends his Test career as India's fourth-highest run-scorer in Test cricket, behind only Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, and Sunil Gavaskar.
Virat Kohli follows Rohit Sharma's footsteps by announcing Test retirement
Notably, Rohit Sharma announced on May 07 about his decision to retire. While the fans were processing that, Kohli's news has just sent them into an emotional meltdown. Both the batters had also announced retirement from the T20Is after clinching the T20 World Cup in 2024. Now, with Test retirement, Kohli and Rohit will be playing just one format - ODI cricket.
Also Read: BCCI, please convince him to stay: Fans emotional on Virat Kohli's Test retirement
While it's not official as to what prompted Kohli to quit Test cricket right before the England series, sources say that his major dip in form and also the new World Test Championship (WTC) cycle 2025-27 set to start, the legendary batter might have conveyed to BCCI to rebuild the team starting with the England series.
