Revisiting key moments
- PTI
- May 12
- 5 min read
Test debut
Shortly after the high of winning his first ODI World Cup, Kohli made his Test debut on June 20 with India cap No. 269 on the tour of West Indies but returned 76 runs across three Tests.
Skirmish with fans in Sydney
Not a part of India's horrendous England tour in mid 2011, Kohli found him thrown in deep water in Australia amid a faltering batting line-up.
"Indians weren't interested in Test cricket" remarked Greg Chappell as India were trounced 0-4, but the pressure of being in a losing side and being unfamiliar to unruly Australian crowd's heckling, Kohli responded with a rude gesture. He was fined 50 per cent of the match fee.
Maiden Test ton in Australia
As the golden era of India's Test batting ended, Kohli threw his hat in the ring to become a flag bearer in future with his maiden ton at Adelaide in January 2012.
A big low in England
With 134 runs in five Tests in England in 2014, Kohli failed miserably against seam and swing with James Anderson at his pomp. It was a huge setback for the young batter who had established his supremacy in ODI format and was being perceived as the next Indian batting star.
The highs of Australia
India's tour of Australia in 2014-15 witnessed a far more disciplined and determined Kohli, who gave the opponents a hard time. He began with 115 and 141 at Adelaide and by the end of the tour, he had 692 runs at 86.50 with four centuries and two fifties.
Love affair with Adelaide
His twin tons in Adelaide showed his special bond with the venue but as the tour progressed, Kohli kept having run-ins with Australia players, including Mitchell Johnson.
Taking over
The start was shaky as Sri Lanka beat India by 63 runs in the first Test but India struck back hard defeating Sri Lanka by 278 runs in Colombo and won the three-Test series.
Making England pay
Yet to prove himself in England as a batter, a challenge which Kohli by his own admission did not rate very high, Kohli scored first of his six double centuries by scoring 235 in Mumbai against England as India crushed them 4-0.
Run-in with Steve Smith's Australia
It began with Kohli shouldering arms to Steve O'Keefe, getting bowled and India suffering a 333-run hammering in Pune.
India won the series 3-1, but it also was one to forget for Kohli the batter — he scored only 46 runs in three Tests that he played.
The fiery affairs included Kohli's claim that he has lost friendship with Australian players. He also complained to on-field umpires when Australia batters looked to the dressing room while deciding to take DRS.
Sri Lanka pay again
Kohli's peak batting prowess in 2016-17 saw him flaying Sri Lanka with consecutive double tons of 213 and 243 at Kolkata and Nagpur, respectively.
Mastering England in 2018
With all eyes on Kohli, he towered above the rest with 593 runs in five Tests (two 100s, three 50s at 59.30) during the England tour starting with a splendid 149 at Birmingham.
Highest Test score
South Africa bore the brunt when Kohli hit 254 not out for his highest Test score in Pune in 2019.
Rewriting history in 2018-19
Aggression personified, Kohli's India stunned the much-fancied Australia side and became the first team from Asia to win a Test series Down Under in nearly seven decades.
Scripting a special win at Lord's
One of Kohli's most famous wins as captain was at Lord's in 2021 when herallied his troops around to bundle England out for a mere 120 inside two sessions, as India recorded a massive 151-run win.
Talking to the stump-mic in Cape Town in 2022
Furious after a leg-before appeal was turned down against South Africa's Dean Elgar, a furious Kohli walked up to the stump mic and said, "Focus on your team as well when they shine the ball, not just the opposition", suggesting manipulation with the ball and making an indirect remark on the infamous 'sandpapergate' episode.
The final act
Stung by poor showings at home against New Zealand, Kohli began the tour of Australia with 100 not out at Perth when the opposition was under the pump.
But the fight petered out with the bat as Kohli kept getting caught in the cordon, while his shoulder-brushing incident with debutant Sam Konstas invited criticism.
Honest to his Craft
Kohli played cricket for all the right reasons and while the establishment will be replete with "back-stories" about whether there was a nudge or push, no one should have any doubts that Kohli has timed his Test adieu perfectly.
He will still be seen in ODIs, a format where he has been peerless for a decade and a half but Kohli, the Test cricketer till COVID-19 hit our lives, was a different beast.
But in times when attention span of an average Indian fan is as brief as an instagram reel, Kohli made the millennials and Generation Z fall in love with Test cricket, managing to draw their attention away from the glitzy Indian Premier League.
One could call it Kohli fandom and India's propensity to be a cricket star-loving country but if that brought footfall in the stands, would anyone mind?
His Test form was on the wane for some years now and that final average of 46.85 doesn't really scream greatness. Kohli would know that more than anyone else.
He needed another 770 runs to complete 10,000 Test runs, which is still a holy grail for batters in the longest format.
His contemporaries, Joe Root of England is few runs short of completing 13,000 runs in Tests while Steve Smith has also crossed the 10,000 mark. Kane Williamson needs 724 runs and he will certainly complete the milestone as he is still in love with New Zealand whites.
Manic Consistency
But Kohli between 2014 to 2019 was a Test player, who personified adrenaline rush, with his work ethic, those rasping cover drives and an assured front-foot stride to live and die for.
Sachin Tendulkar was a perfectionist but Kohli's aura was in being a non-conformist.
He had the defensive game but believed in offence. Tendulkar worked on his mistakes and Kohli worked around his frailties. To each his own.
It all changed after a horrendous 2014 tour of England when James Anderson set the toughest question paper of his career. Full or slightly back of the length deliveries that swung away were thrown at him and Kohli couldn't cross the 'English Channel'.
But few months after that debacle, when he rolled his wrists and pulled Mitchell Johnson at the Adelaide Oval after being hit on the helmet, one knew that something special was unfolding. Four hundreds in Australia and the legend of Kohli had his speed truck on Highway to greatness.
In 2018, he came back to England scoring 593 runs to conquer the demons of 2014.
He became a bench mark for fitness and also became a captain, who wanted to win away Tests at all costs.
He was very different as a captain, not shy of celebrating animatedly and forming a pace quartet (Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav) that could intimidate any line-up across the cricketing stratosphere.
Last of the Purists
Kohli loved Test cricket and Test cricket loved him back. It was a symbiotic relationship. He grew up in an era in which Tendulkar was the mega star and playing Test cricket with distinction was the ultimate badge of honour.
He had his issues -- the questions outside the off-stump remained, he could never sweep spinners like Tendulkar or Rohit Sharma but Kohli was one player acutely aware of his strengths and knew how to maximise them. And he did that with aplomb.
Since cricket is a reflection of society and T20 is the mirror, Kohli will perhaps remain the last megastar of the game's purest form.
It is not likely to change anytime soon.
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