Virat Kohli: Test Records and Achievements

Virat Kohli’s Test journey came to an end yesterday when he let the world know about his retirement decision via social media. Kohli has been a great achiever both as a leader and an individual batter in this red-ball format throughout his 14-year-long Test career. 

Several records were broken and made, which left all fans to understand the contribution that he has made not only to Indian cricket but also to Test cricket as a brand.

Here are the Test records and achievements by Virat Kohli:

Kohli captained Team India in 68 Tests, the most by any Indian. In those matches, he won 40 times, suffering only 17 losses and 11 draws, holding a winning percentage of 58.82 per cent. This makes him still the most successful Team India Test skipper of all time.

It was Kohli who was leading the side when India defeated Australia for the first time in Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 2018/19. Under Kohli’s leadership, India held the top spot in the ICC Test team rankings for five consecutive years from 2016 to 2021. 

India also reached the final of the 2021 World Test Championship (WTC) final, but unfortunately, India lost to New Zealand. Kohli also equalled the former Aussie great, Ricky Ponting, in terms of winning nine consecutive Test series from 2015 to 2017. 

He also became the first Indian captain to score twin centuries on his captaincy debut when he smashed 115 and 141 in both innings of the Adelaide Test during the 2014/15 BGT series. Kohli has seven double centuries to his name and is the only captain to do so in Tests. 

In 2019, when he scored an unbeaten 254 vs South Africa, it turned out to be the highest score for an Indian skipper in Tests. Also, during his captaincy stint, Kohli scored 20 Test centuries, the most by any Team India skipper. Hence, he has also scored the most runs as India's captain, with 5864 runs coming across 68 Tests at a jaw-dropping 54.80 average.

With 9230 runs to his name in his 123 Tests, Kohli is the fourth-highest run scorer for India in Tests. Along with the most double centuries by an Indian (7), Kohli smashed 30 Test centuries also. In Australia, he excelled to another level as he smashed seven Test centuries, surpassing Sachin Tendulkar. 

In the 2014/15 tour of Australia, he scored four centuries, the first Indian to do so in a single overseas Test series. Five times, Kohli scored the most runs in a calendar year by an Indian batter – 2012, 2015, 2016, 2018, and 2023 – and in 2018, he even earned 937 points, the most by an Indian batter in the ICC Men’s Test Batter Rankings. 

He is the only batter in Tests to score over 1000 runs at an average of 75 or more in two successive calendar years.

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