Former Indian captain Virat Kohli has announced his decision to retire from Test Cricket to the BCCI. Kohli, now 36, has always been in the selection firing line ever since his senior teammate and captain, Rohit Sharma, announced his Test retirement.
Virat Kohli was appointed India’s Test captain in 2014. His accolades as India’s Greatest Test captain are there for everyone to see. Under his leadership, the Indian Cricket Team won a Test series in Australia for the 1st time.
Virat Kohli has been India’s Greatest Test Captain
Apart from this, Kohli led India to draw a Test series in South Africa and also led India to an away series win in England on the last tour, as Team India was leading 2-1 in the 5-match Test series before the final Test had to be called off and postponed for a year.
England went on to win the final Test a year later, thereby denying India a chance to win a Test series as the series ended in a 2-2 draw. Virat Kohli has been a key figure in revolutionizing India’s pace attack, with a host of fast bowlers taking charge of the country’s wins on away tours.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, and Umesh Yadav are among some of the notable pacers who have climbed up the ranks of Indian cricket under Kohli’s leadership.
In terms of numbers, Virat Kohli has been India’s most successful Test captain. Team India played a total of 68 Tests under Kohli’s captaincy, wherein they went on to win 40 Tests, losing only 17 games while drawing 11 matches.
Out of these 40 wins, Team India won 25 Tests at home and also won 15 Tests away from home. Virat Kohli’s win percentage as India’s Test captain was a staggering 58.82%.
Kohli is going through a lean patch in Tests
After all these accolades, it is worth noting that Virat has gone through a lean patch of late in Test cricket. The stalwart had an extremely poor outing away from home in Australia, getting out in identical fashion across all the innings down under.
Kohli managed to score just 1 hundred in the 5 Tests that he played and scored a total of 190 runs in the 9 innings he played.
Now, it has been learnt that Virat Kohli has informed the BCCI about his decision to retire from Test Cricket. This comes at a crucial juncture as Team India is expected to play a 5-match Test series in England starting from June 20.
Earlier this week, Rohit Sharma also announced his decision to retire from Tests after he was informed by the BCCI about their intentions of not looking at him as the captain anymore in the fresh WTC Cycle.
BCCI informed about the decision
Now, a report in the Indian Express stated that Kohli has informed BCCI and the Indian selectors of not continuing in Tests anymore. As per the report, the board has asked him to reconsider his decision at least for the upcoming tour of England, but Kohli has yet to respond.
“He has made up his mind and has informed the board that he is moving on from Test cricket. The BCCI has urged him to rethink as the crucial England tour is coming up. He is yet to revert on the request,” sources told this newspaper.