Virat Kohli Test Retirement: 2011, Indian cricket holds a different place in the hearts of fans. That year, Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s name was on the tongue of cricket fans. But in the same year, a cricketer made his debut in Test cricket, who went ahead and gave Test cricket a distinct identity. It was about 14 years ago. After winning the World Cup, Team India was to visit the West Indies tour. On this tour, Virat Kohli was selected for the Test team for the first time. He was doing ‘Struggle’ in the West Indies. Virat was overshadowed by trying to put a drive by standing in his place. The Indian team had a tour of Australia after the West Indies.
Travel started 14 years ago
Virat Kohli did not bat in both the first Tests played in Melbourne and Sydney. That is, there were now 6 Tests and Virat Kohli had only one half -century to count.
Discussions had started in the Indian media too, how many opportunities will be given to Virat Kohli now? There was a continuous debate on the fact that in the third Test match of the series, Dhoni should change the playing 11. The first two Tests had already lost, so there was also the appearance to change the team. Dhoni gave Virat Kohli a chance to play another Test match.
Perth Test changed luck
The trouble was that the next Test match was in Perth. The speed and bounce of Perth’s pitch was beyond the comprehension of the Indian batsmen. But in this test, Virat Kohli did this feat. In both innings, Virat Kohli scored the most runs for India. 44 runs in the first innings and 75 runs in the second innings. After this, the story is recorded in history. Virat Kohli scored 4 Test centuries and 3 half -centuries in the next 10 Tests.
After Rohit, Virat said goodbye
Virat Kohli has said goodbye to his 14 -year Test journey today. On May 7, Team India captain Rohit also announced his retirement from Test cricket and then 6 days later Virat Kohli also gave these big information about fans. After the retirement of Virat Kohli’s Test, the biggest question in the mind of Indian cricket fans is that what happened in the last one week is that two veterans of Team India have retired. Let’s try to know the answer to this question.
In the year 2012-13, when there was a change in the Indian Test, veteran players like Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid said goodbye to cricket.
Kohli’s performance was very poor in the last two Test series and Team India suffered a shameful defeat in the last two series. New Zealand came to India last year and made Team India a clean sweep 3–0 in the three-match Test series. In this series, Kohli scored 93 runs in six innings of three matches at an average of 15.50. At the same time, on the tour of Australia, Kohli was able to score 190 runs in nine innings of five matches. This includes a century. Kohli scored a century in the first Test in Perth. After this, he could score only 90 runs in eight innings. Kohli was dismissed eight times and seven times he was out on the ball going out of the off stump.
Virat Kohli said goodbye to this format due to poor form in the test? Let’s take a look at Kohli’s Test career before proceeding on this.
Virat Kohli has a great performance in Test cricket. Virat Kohli has played 123 Test matches in his career. Kohli has also scored 30 centuries and 31 half -centuries in the Test. He has scored 9230 runs in 210 innings at an average of 46.85. Talking about Virat’s best score, his highest score is 254 runs (unbeaten). In his career, Virat has also scored seven double centuries. Virat’s last Test century came in the Test played in Perth, in this match, a historic victory from Team India was also recorded. The biggest thing in Test cricket is that Virat has won the highest 40 Tests for India as captain.
Three centuries in the last five years
Virat Kohli, who made his Test debut in 2011, ruled Test cricket till 2019. During this time his batting average was around 55 and he scored 27 centuries. He was a player to score more centuries than Joe Root, Kane Williamson and Steve Smith in Fab-4 during this period. But it cannot be denied that Virat Kohli had been running in poor form for a long time. Since 2020, Virat Kohli’s performance has seen a steady decline.
From 1 January 2020, Virat Kohli has scored 2028 runs in 39 matches with an average of 30.72. Only 3 centuries came out of his bat for the last five years. Last year, this player scored 417 runs in 10 Tests at an average of just 24.52. Talking about the last five years, it happened only in the year 2023 when Virat Kohli’s average was more than 50.
Virat himself told this thing
Like Sachin Tendulkar, when Virat Kohli also came to bat, the whole country would have believed that he would turn towards India. With this pressure he played 14 years Test, but it was not so easy to withstand this pressure. Recently, in RCB’s podcast, he said that fans always expect from him. He never found himself separated from this pressure. Whenever he used to bat poorly, he felt that all the fans have their eyes on him. He was getting upset with this and thought that it was more important to be happy. Because of this, he also left the captaincy of the Indian team.