Virat Kohli's Test career in pics
Virat Kohli retired from Test cricket on Monday, ending an illustrious 14-year career in the format. Here's a look at his Test career in pictures.•BCCI
Kohli first showed glimpses of what would come when he scored twin fifties against West Indies in Mumbai in November 2011. Batting at No. 6, he made 63 off 114 balls in the second innings as India came agonisingly close to a win, only to settle for a rare result: a draw with scores level.•AFP
Though he started off 2014 with a century in New Zealand, his first Test tour of England did not go well. He couldn't stop nicking the swinging Dukes ball, particularly against James Anderson, and averaged 13.40 in a series that he has often described as his lowest phase in cricket.•Getty Images
In 2016 and 2017, he scored a total of six double-centuries. The first one came against West Indies in Antigua. After failing to hit a fifty in his next seven innings, he scored 211 against New Zealand in Indore. The best of them came against England in tough conditions in Mumbai, where his 235 led India to an innings win. This was followed by a 214 against Bangladesh in Hyderabad.•AFP
The year 2018 kept getting better. He scored 254* - his best in the format - against South Africa in Pune. With that, he broke the record of most double-centuries by an India batter in Test cricket.•BCCI
Amid declining form, Kohli announced his decision to step down from Test captaincy following the series loss against South Africa in 2022. He is India's most successful Test captain of all time, with 40 wins in 68 Tests.•AFP/Getty Images
Kohli retires as India's fourth-highest run-getter of all time, with 9230 runs in 123 matches at an average of 46.85. •Getty Images
After an impressive run in ODIs, 22-year-old Kohli earned his first Test call-up as a replacement for Yuvraj Singh for the West Indies tour in 2011 and debuted in Kingston. But Kohli could only score a total of 76 runs across five innings in the series.•Associated Press
The combative side of Kohli's personality was on full view during his first full tour of Australia, where he found himself in battles with the opposition and with the spectators. And when he reached his maiden Test hundred in Adelaide, he didn't hold back with his celebration.•AFP
He turned his year around in Australia, where he made four centuries across eight innings. He stood in as captain for the injured MS Dhoni in the Adelaide Test, and became only the second to score twin centuries on captaincy debut.•Getty Images
He ended 2017 with two double-centuries against Sri Lanka in back-to-back Tests at home, including a 243 in his hometown, Delhi.•AFP
After four years in charge of the Test side, Kohli achieved his greatest feat as captain, beating Australia away in the 2018-19 Border-Gavaskar Trophy.•David Gray/AFP/Getty Images
After averaging 26.20 and scoring no hundreds in 36 Test innings over the previous three years, Kohli looked a rejuvenated figure in 2023. A century in Ahmedabad against Australia ended his long drought, and he followed it up with another century in Trinidad.•BCCI
His rise in Tests continued as he scored centuries against New Zealand, England and Australia at home in 2012-13, and following Sachin Tendulkar's retirement in 2013, he made the No. 4 spot his own. Almost to celebrate, Kohli made a Tendulkaresque century against South Africa in difficult conditions in Johannesburg in December 2013.•Associated Press
After Dhoni's abrupt retirement from Test cricket after the Boxing Day Test at MCG later in that series, Kohli became the full-time Test captain in Sydney. He scored a century, of course, but while he enjoyed a career-defining series, India lost 2-0.•Getty Images
In an extraordinary year of Test-match batting, Kohli conquered the demons of 2014, with two hundreds and three fifties on the tour of England. For the first time in his career, he went to the top of the ICC's rankings for Test batters.•Getty Images
However, India's next Test tour of Australia began catastrophically: 36 all out in Adelaide. Kohli took the rest of the series off for the birth of his first child and played no part in the cricket as India, led by Ajinkya Rahane, came back from behind to pull off a famous series win.•Getty Images
But his form once again dipped in 2024, as he went without a half-century in 13 innings. With questions around his place in the side, he broke the rut with a 100* against Australia in Perth. But the rest of the series did not go as expected as he made four single-digit scores in the next seven innings.•Associated Press