Monday blues for India got a whole lot gloomier after star batter Virat Kohli announced his retirement from Test cricket with immediate effect.
The announcement brought down the curtains on an illustrious career, which spanned 123 Tests and 9,230 runs at an average of 46.85.
Kohli will always be remembered for singlehandedly increasing the honour and prestige of Tests not only in India, but globally as well. His swagger, intensity, and poise in the red-ball game have reminded us why Test cricket is, was, and will be the pinnacle of the sport.
Over the years, Kohli has wowed fans with his batting in some of the most demanding conditions the format has to offer, with his resilience, attention to detail, and unwavering commitment to leave everything on the pitch earning him admirers the world over.
In this piece, we take a look at Kohli’s five greatest Test knocks that have gone on to define his reputation among the pantheon of cricketing greats.
5 || 116 vs Australia (Adelaide 2012)
This was the first of his 30 Test centuries. With India facing a humiliating whitewash, and the rest of his illustrious colleagues failing to register meaningful contributions with the bat, Kohli took it upon himself to shoulder the run-scoring burden.
Teaming up with Wriddhiman Saha and then Ishant Sharma, Kohli unleashed a clinic of elegant and creative batting that ruffled the Australian feathers, leading them to unleash verbal volleys at the young batter. However, he did not let that affect him and went on to score his maiden Test hundred. He ended up being the last batter to be dismissed, and the only one to score a century in that ill-fated series.
Little did Australia know that this beady-eyed boy would go on to become one of the biggest thorns in their side in the coming years. It was also the start of the love story between Virat Kohli and the Adelaide Oval, which would soon become his favourite overseas hunting ground.
4 || 119 vs South Africa (Johannesburg 2013)
“It was like watching Sachin Tendulkar,” said the then-Proteas bowling coach, Allan Donald. This knock was a sign of things to come from a Virat Kohli who was steadily cementing his place as a mainstay in the Indian Test side.
On seaming conditions against a marauding South African pace battery featuring Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander, and Morne Morkel, Kohli not only held his own, but he also dominated them in a style very few could comprehend back then.
Kohli displayed a balance of monk-like patience in leaving the ball outside the off stump, and then seized his opportunity to target the spinners in the second part of his innings. His enterprise and serene stroke play gave India a genuine shot at victory before the match concluded in a thrilling stalemate.
3 || 141 vs Australia (Adelaide 2014)
With MS Dhoni injured for this Test, Kohli assumed the role of captain. He then went about writing his own narrative in a match that well and truly put him in the spotlight.
Kohli had already scored a century in the first innings, but after India were set a daunting and formidable target of 364, he decided to take things into his own hands. He did not even entertain thoughts of a draw, and went single-mindedly for the win.
On a pitch that saw Nathan Lyon turning it big, Kohli unleashed all his strokes like a painter enveloping the canvas with his masterpiece. Sweeps, drives, hoicks—his innings had everything. Even the seemingly ferocious Mitchell Johnson was not spared as Kohli bludgeoned his way to a breathtaking 141 before painfully falling short by 60 runs.
2 || 153 vs South Africa (Centurion 2018)
In a Test where the next best score from an Indian batter was 46, Kohli once again demonstrated his superhuman ability to carry a side on his broad, able shoulders. He batted for a total of 379 minutes and looked like a midsummer night’s dream for every minute of his stay.
Kohli scored half of his side’s runs, facing close to 43% of all the deliveries in the innings. Indeed, it was a Herculean effort.
1 || 149 vs England (Edgbaston 2018)
This was the innings that well and truly helped Kohli conquer the ghosts of his 2014 England nightmare—a performance with which he stamped his claim as the best batter in world cricket.
And what a knock it was. Kohli walked in to bat with all eyes on him. Charging down the pitch was his nemesis and grim reaper of the 2014 series, James Anderson. What unfolded later was a battle of two titans—like an old-fashioned gladiator match.
Anderson bowled 15 overs without pause from one end, trying to one-up Kohli. But Kohli was undeterred. In a zen-like place like never before, he slowly and steadily went about burying the ghosts of his past.
It was not a perfect knock by any stretch. In fact, Kohli would have been sent packing at 21 had Dawid Malan not fluffed a regulation chance at second slip off an Anderson delivery. But after that, there was no inch given, and there was no looking back.
Kohli thrilled, wowed, and captivated the crowd in equal measure as he scored his first-ever ton on English soil. A perfect and telling response.
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