It’s been almost two days since one of modern day’s greatest ever to touch the game, Virat Kohli, announced his retirement from the game’s premier format.
And it still doesn’t feel real.
To be honest, I’ve always had a love-hate-love relationship with Kohli. When he broke onto the scene after leading the India U19 team to World Cup glory in 2008, everyone saw him as the next big thing. though his first couple of years in the senior Indian team were hardly extraordinary. Once he got going, however, it was hard not to love him.
When the Indian Premier League began, as a non-Royal Challengers Bengaluru fan I despised him for those two-and-a-half months every year—and still do. But when it came to the national team, Kohli is someone we have always taken for granted.
The 36-year-old Delhi boy leaves Test cricket with 9,230 runs, an average of 46.85, and 30 centuries. Now, I don’t intend to dive into his stats too much or deconstruct his career’s best and most impactful knocks. For any batter to end their career with 9,000+ runs in Tests is a dream and would usually make them one of their country’s finest batters. But for Kohli, these numbers do not justify the player he was in Tests. He leaves without hitting the 10,000-run milestone and overtaking Sachin Tendulkar’s tally of centuries.
These numbers alone simply cannot signify the impact Kohli had in the red-ball format. Then again, nothing ever will.
Ever since he got into his groove in the red-ball game—be it in Johannesburg in 2013 or the career-defining Australia tour of 2014, which also saw him take over the reins of captaincy from MS Dhoni—there was no stopping Kohli. People inevitably compared him to Tendulkar, the “God of Cricket”, and most would have crumbled under that pressure.
But it didn’t bother Kohli one bit. He went about his business, scoring runs at such a rate that people thought the god might be eclipsed. That didn’t happen in the end, but Kohli did become a supreme leader in his own right—a giant who changed the red-ball game in India and around the world.
The Supreme leader
Supreme leader—yes, that’s how I’ll remember Kohli. Despite being a modern-day great with the bat, it’s his leadership in the red-ball format that will remain his greatest legacy for me. Sourav Ganguly built the team, Dhoni picked up the trophies, but it was Kohli who transformed India’s red-ball setup.
A pioneer in fitness himself, Kohli was among the first to advocate its importance. He used it to drive results and made sure his team ground out that extra bit. He was neither the most naturally talented nor the best red-ball batter, but he worked hard and made sure he reached the top.
That’s Kohli for you: once he sets his eyes on something, he pursues it relentlessly—something that has also inspired his teammates over the years.
Kohli’s biggest impact won’t be the runs he scored, but the revival of red-ball cricket. Look at it this way: unless you’re a cricket fanatic, how many bilateral Test series between 2004 and 2014 involving India can you recall? Now compare that to the numerous memorable series they played with Kohli at the helm.
The Australia tour in 2014/15, Australia in India in 2017, England in 2018, and the Australia tour in 2018/19—whenever and wherever Kohli led, not only was there top-class cricket on the pitch, we also had non-stop entertainment, bringing massive viewership.
A darling of brands, Kohli grabbed eyeballs even from the most casual fans, who would tune in just to watch him play. He revived a dying format not only in India but worldwide, as the whole cricketing community started giving Test cricket the attention it deserves. Just when it had begun to feel like the younger generation would grow up preferring T20s over Tests, Kohli shifted the narrative.
Kohli’s first Test as captain was the Adelaide affair against Australia during India’s tour in 2014/15, where he was handed the captaincy abruptly after Dhoni decided to call it a day. Right from that game, his intentions were clear: “We are playing to win”. The Adelaide game saw Australia pile up 517/7 in their first innings, with Kohli’s 115 helping India get to 444 in their first innings. Then, having been a target of 364 to win on the final day, Kohli once again reminded his team that they were playing to win. A sublime 141 from the captain almost got the team over the line, but with little to no contribution from anyone else except Murali Vijay, the Men in Blue fell short by 48 runs that day, though not without making the world take notice and setting the precedent that would see them change their approach to Test cricket.
Until then, there was nothing extraordinary about India’s red-ball team. Yes, they had won abroad in England and New Zealand, but these were one-offs; we never managed to dominate consistently.
And that’s what changed under Kohli. A fiery Delhi boy, he always played with his heart on his sleeve, making sure to always stand up for his teammates. Imagine telling James Anderson, “This isn’t your backyard,” or “Go and bowl,” while touring the UK. Kohli’s no-nonsense approach made sure no one got away after sledging his team as he led his side to dominate outside India.
Given the massive Indian diaspora worldwide, wherever Kohli took his team, any game India played practically became a home game.
Not only did he stand up for his players, Kohli also made his team a band of warriors. Every single player under him had that fire in his belly, refusing to be a pushover, the notion that Indians would be passive abroad thoroughly erased. Regardless of whether the runs came or the bowlers delivered, every player made sure to stay lively and aggressive on the pitch—just like their leader.
And on the pitch, Kohli delivered both with the bat and as captain. The Australia tour of 2018/19 will remain arguably one of his greatest achievements, as his Men in Blue took down the Aussies in their own backyard, ending their 71-year wait for a Test series win Down Under. Even though he did not lift a trophy as captain, Kohli performed miracles with the bat to win his side games in South Africa and England. The World Test Championship eluded him as India fell to New Zealand in 2021, a year that also marked the end of his red-ball captaincy.
Even though he stepped down without lifting the WTC trophy, Kohli gave India something arguably much more important than silverware: he gave the nation hope, a reason to believe.
Leaving on a Low?
With the bat, Kohli could do no wrong between 2014 and 2019 and climbed unprecedented personal heights. However, his red-ball form dipped after 2020. Even though we saw glimpses of his very best in fleeting moments, the consistency that had once been there remained missing.
An average—in fact, a poor—final half-decade in the red-ball game saw Kohli’s average drop below 50. He may have redefined Test cricket, but his journey did not have the prettiest of endings. During his peak years, most believed Kohli would break Tendulkar’s records. Having already eclipsed the legend’s incredible white-ball century record, breaking the red-ball records felt almost inevitable.
“If Kohli is there, we still have a chance”—his hunger, drive, and fire to singlehandedly get India over the line reminded fans of the Tendulkar years. When he broke onto the scene, the passive onlookers saw Kohli as a villain for his brashness. As he leaves, however, he leaves as a giant as the nation begs him to stay a while longer.
We will get plenty of batters to replace Kohli in the red-ball game, and some may prove to be better than him, but none will match his aura and passion and bring what he brought to the field. An incredible competitor, an obsessive winner, a beacon of hope for a country of more than a billion—that was Virat Kohli in Tests. Filling Tendulkar’s shoes was never going to be easy, yet he managed to carve his own legacy, so much so that parents now ask their kids, “Whom do you want to bat like? Kohli?”
To wrap up, like I said, it still doesn’t feel real that we’ll be watching India play Tests without Kohli—our go-to man for all conditions. Retirements and goodbyes are part of sport, and Indian cricket will move on, but boy, did he make it worthwhile during the years he gave to the game’s greatest format.
Thank you, King, for everything you did for us. Go well in your next innings.
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