AB de Villiers reacts to Virat Kohli's Test retirement (Credit: ICC)
The whole of the cricket community was taken aback by Virat Kohli's shocking announcement on Monday that he was retiring from Test cricket. Retired and active cricket players praised Kohli, who represented India across 123 Test matches over 14 years, on social media. However, fans were moved by the post of Kohli's dear friend and former RCB teammate AB de Villiers.
AB De Villiers on Virat Kohli's Test Retirement
The brotherhood between Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers is not hidden from anyone and it was once again visible in the former Proteas captain's social media post on Kohli's Test retirement. He congratulated the Indian batting maestro on a legendary Test career and praised him for inspiring him and the millions of others across the globe. His posts are going viral as he already got over a million likes on Instagram in less than an hour and almost 500k likes on 'X'.
"Congrats to my biscotti @imVkohli on an epic Test career! Your determination & skill have always inspired me. True legend," AB de Villiers captioned his social media post for Virat Kohli on 'X' and Instagram.
After 14 years and 123 Test matches, the 36-year-old Kohli ended his illustrious red-ball career. On June 20, 2011, at Kingston, the Delhi batsman made his Test debut against the West Indies. In the ensuing ten years, from 2010 to 2019, Kohli became India's most successful batter. With 7202 runs at an average of 54.97 and 27 hundred, the most of any batter in that period.
But after COVID-19 in 2020, India No. 4's stock plummeted, scoring just 2028 runs in 68 innings, with three hundred and nine fifties. Interestingly, out of the 24 Test batters who have scored at least 2000 runs since 2020, Kohli has the lowest average of 30.72.
Kohli will likely be remembered as one of India's best batters in the format, despite his sudden choice to end his red-ball career. With 9230 runs in 210 innings, Kohli is fourth highest run-score for India, only surpassed by the legendary trio of Sunil Gavaskar (10,122), Rahul Dravid (13,265), and Sachin Tendulkar (15,921).
After MS Dhoni stepped down as Test captain in 2014, Kohli successfully led India for eight years. Kohli guided his team to 40 Test match victories in 68 appearances as captain and will go down as the most successful Indian Test skipper in history. The only international captains with more Test victories are Steve Waugh (41), Ricky Ponting (48), and Graeme Smith (53).
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