Virat Kohli, Test cricket’s best ambassador, has opted to move away from the format in a decision driven by the team’s needs more than personal desires. Coming on the heels of Rohit Sharma’s retirement from Test cricket, it is a double blow India would have to deal with in a few months when the team travels to England for a much-hyped five-match series.
Test cricket was dear to Virat. He loved it as much as he loved anything in life. He was criticised when he returned from Australia at the start of the series to be at his wife’s side and welcome their first child. India won the series in exceptional circumstances, but the move did not match his image as a lover of Test cricket.
He was a champion of red-ball cricket. His preparation for the season was driven by the number of Test matches he was likely to figure in. Fitness was the foundation of his contribution to the team, and he had begun to feel the lack of it during India’s tour of Australia in late 2024.
A total of 190 runs in nine innings did little to silence his growing number of critics. One of the innings was 100 not out in a winning cause at Perth. But this was not the Virat his fans had come to admire. The century notwithstanding, he was unhappy with his form and the mode of dismissals.
It was true that he was being hustled into succumbing to the bowlers. Mitchell Starc, Scott Boland, and Josh Hazlewood played havoc with his reputation and batsmanship, leaving him embarrassed on the pitch. It was clear Virat was a fraction of a second late in reading the ball. The signs were clear.
Footwork was Virat’s forte, but it had let him down in the past two seasons. His technique had developed flaws that the bowlers were able to exploit in different conditions. The harder he worked to sort out the issue, the more complex the process became. Evidently, time had caught up with one of India’s finest batters.
It was not going to be easy for Virat to maintain the degree of consistency and concentration with each passing season. The exacting demands of captaincy led him to give up that role because he needed space to work out his flaws. He had always wanted to lead from the front, but things were different because of the number of matches he was required to play.
He was wise to stop playing T20 for the national team, despite his firm commitment to RCB. He believed in loyalty, which was why he did not leave RCB. But he was convinced that a stream of youngsters were ready to serve India in the shortest game format.
His detractors knew he was not at his best in Test cricket, which was valid to a large extent. It was the mode of dismissals that showed Virat in poor light. His misery had no answer when the team needed him. It also hurt Virat that he was not able to deliver.
Virat had made waves with his aggressive batting in Delhi as a 15-year-old, and it was a privilege to see him grow. From Virat to the journey of becoming King Kohli was a glorious chapter in Indian cricket for his contemporaries. Except for stars like Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, and Steve Smith, the modern era has not seen such a colossal figure on the pitch.
He became a critical part of Indian cricket on merit, a very different player, not just talented but determined to succeed. It was sheer hard work that saw Virat assume such a dominating role, attracting spectators and sponsors to Test cricket.
The master of run-chasing looked a forlorn figure as he failed to lift the team’s spirits. He was well aware that five-day cricket can be very demanding on the mind and body. He had clearly lost the drive and desire to fight poor form.
Having been hailed as the face of Test cricket, Virat took the decisive and correct step to move on — the right decision at the right time. Only, he denied his fans the opportunity to give him a standing ovation on his final walk to the dressing room from the Test arena.
A certain Himanshu Sangwan will have a particular story to tell his grandchildren. He took Virat’s wicket, bowled by a lovely in-swinger, on the latter’s home ground in January this year. That was Virat’s farewell first-class appearance. The fear of failure and the possibility of being dropped from the Test team compelled the king to abdicate his throne. Sunil Gavaskar. Kapil Dev. Sachin Tendulkar. All moved on from the game. So has Virat Kohli, a legend of the modern era.