Rating Virat Kohli as Test batter: 7.5/10 for meteoric rise dealt with disastrous end

12 May 2025, 06:37 by Koushik Narayanan · Inside Sport India

Virat Kohli has retired from Test cricket just a few runs short of breaching the 10000 run mark

Virat Kohli’s 14-year-long Test career has finally come to an end. The batting maestro, who started his career under the captaincy of MS Dhoni, witnessed a meteoric rise, which saw him surpass various legends to become one of the greatest Test batters for India. From his highs between 2016-2018 to his lowest of lows in 2024, we take a look at how Kohli as a batter had fared in his Test career.

1. 2011-2015 – Slow but consistent improvement

When young Kohli started out his Test career in 2011, he was dealt with disappointment in his very first year. He managed to score just 202 runs in 9 innings, studded with consistent failures against West Indies and Australia.

However, that was just the start of the peak Kohli journey. Thereafter, for the next 4 years, he went on to amass 689, 616, 847 and 640 runs until 2015. Through these 4 years, he displayed some insane consistency. But the best of him came out in the years to follow.

Year	Mat	Inns	Runs	HS	Avg	100s	50s
2011	5	9	202	63	22.44	0	2
2012	9	16	689	116	49.21	3	3
2013	8	12	616	119	56.00	2	3
2014	10	20	847	169	44.57	4	2
2015	9	15	640	147	42.66	2	2

2. 2016-2018: Peak Kohli years

Virat’s Test career peaked during 2016-18, where he turned out to be the number 1 Test batter in the world. In these 3 years, he managed to 14 hundreds and 8 fifties. In total, he amassed 3596 runs from 35 Tests. His averages for the three years were 75.93, 75.64 and 55.08. These are precisely the years when he made a strong case for being among the “Fab 4”.

What followed was a year when he managed to score 612 runs from 8 innings in 2019, averaging 68. And then came the so-called fall.

Year	Mat	Inns	Runs	HS	Avg	SR	100s	50s	0s
2016	12	18	1215	235	75.93	60.41	4	2	0
2017	10	16	1059	243	75.64	76.24	5	1	2
2018	13	24	1322	153	55.08	54.33	5	5	2
2019	8	11	612	254*	68.00	63.28	2	2	2

3. The COVID effect: 2020-2022

Virat Kohli’s form in Tests saw a significant downfall since the start of COVID. In 2020, he scored just 116 runs from 3 games. What followed was 536 and 265 runs in 2021 and 2022 respectively from 11 and 6 games. His average – 28.21 and 26.50 respectively. Through these three years, Kohli failed to score even a single century.

Year	Mat	Inns	Runs	HS	Avg	SR	50s	0s
2020	3	6	116	74	19.33	40.98	1	0
2021	11	19	536	72	28.21	44.07	4	4
2022	6	11	265	79	26.50	39.43	1	0

4. A failed redemption arc: 2023-25

2023 saw Virat recover well, as he managed to amass 671 runs from 8 games. He managed to get his average back to above 50s. However, it only went downhill since then. After missing the IND vs ENG series at the start of 2024, he performed miserably in the home series against Bangladesh and New Zealand.

The final nail in the coffin came in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series against Australia. The veteran batter had a rather miserable series, managing to score just 190 runs in 9 innings, averaging 23.75. His problem with playing outside the off deliveries led to him being dismissed in that fashion 8 out of 9 times.