Virat Kohli, one of India’s best Test cricketers, signed off his cap number 269 on Monday after a career of 123 matches, 9230 runs at an average of 46.85 with 30 tons and 31 half centuries.
In eight years as India’s Test captain, Kohli led India 68 times, winning 40 and losing only 17 times, the best record for an Indian skipper.
Here’s a look back at some moments that defined Kohli’s Test career.
A star is born down under
He made his debut in 2011 in Kingston against West Indies. And after five tests that year; he went with an Indian team that featured Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman on a tour to Australia.
In a series where India was whitewashed, Kohli, a 23-year-old made his mark, but at first, for the wrong reasons. In the 2nd Test at Sydney, Kohli was almost banned for flipping the middle finger at a section of the Australian crowd who repeatedly taunted him.
In the 3rd Test at Perth, the world’s fastest pitch, he scored 75 runs. In the 4th test at Adelaide, he scored 116, his, his maiden Test ton.
Two centuries in one match
In 2014, India toured Australia, and Kohli donned the captain’s cap for the first time in the first Test as M.S. Dhoni was unfit. And he led from the front. He scored 115 in the first innings and 141 in the second. Before that innings only Rahul Dravid, Sunil Gavaskar and Vijay Hazare had scored two tons in the same test match for India.
2016-17 the year of double tons
Five years into his Test career, Kohli did not have a single double hundred. But 2016 was going to change all of that.
On the tour of West Indies, Kohli brought up his first test double century at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound, Antigua. That Test calendar year, from 2016 -2017, he scored 211 vs New Zealand at Indore, 235 in a Test vs England in Wankhede and 204 versus Bangladesh in Hyderabad.
60 overs of hell
The single greatest moment of captain Virat Kohli has to be the team huddle at Lord’s on the final day of the second Test of the 2021 series.
England had 60 overs to face while chasing 272 runs in an attempt to draw the Test.
Kohli in the team huddle said “I don’t want to see any smiling faces out there. For the next 60 overs they should feel like Hell out there,” according to reports. And the Indian bowlers responded.
Bumrah took three wickets, Siraj took four, Shami took one and Ishant Sharma took the other two.
That day the fielding was tight and the bowling was even tighter with the highest economy being 2.95.
India ended up wrapping up the game in 51.5 overs with a 151 run win at Lord’s.
Coming off age in Australia
When you look at Virat Kohli’s Test career, Australia is a place you visit time and time again to understand Kohli’s progression as a player and as a captain.
In his first series there in 2011- 2012 he scored his maiden Test ton, in his second visit there during the 2014-2015 series he went as interim captain and ended up as India’s full time captain by the fourth Test.
In that series he scored four tons, 692 runs at an average of 86.52.
Next up was the 2018-2019 series of captain Kohli coming of age. The first time India won the Border-Gavaskar trophy down under. Captain Kohli led India’s charge winning two Tests of the four match series, losing one and drawing the other.
Kohli vs Johnson a battle for the ages
Boxing Day Tests somehow provide the most epic cricketing moments and highlights. One such moment was created when Virat Kohli walked into bat, angry as all hell with a will to conquer any opposition. Mitchell Johnson bowled at Kohli, Kohli played it back and turned around as Johnson took an aim at the stumps for a run out. The ball hit Kohli’s calf and it hurt for sure. But that hurt was turned into rage as Kohli took apart Johnson and all the other bowlers Australia threw at him enroute an unforgettable innings of 169, hooking and pulling the ball with no mercy.
Resurgent ton in England
Virat Kohli’s first tour to England in 2014 was horrific; he scored 134 runs across 10 innings. Fast forward to 2018, the build up to the India England series was all about Kohli vs James Anderson.
In the first innings of the first Test, Kohli walked in with India at 54-2 and scored 149 runs before getting out with India all out for 274. He added scores of 97 and 103 in the Nottingham Test as well putting to rest any criticism of him being unable to score in England.
Hattrick of Test tons
Another peak was a series against Sri Lanka at home in 2019 when Kohli scored 0 in the first innings at Eden Gardens, but bounced back with 104 in the second innings. In the second Test in Nagpur, Kohli scored 213 in India’s only innings and then followed it up with a 243 run innings in Delhi. India won the series 3-0, Kohli won player of the match in the second and third Test along with the player of the series award for 610 runs in 5 innings.