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AP PHOTOS: India great Virat Kohli retires from test cricket

India great Virat Kohli retired from test cricket Monday after playing 123 matches in his 14-year red-ball career.

Kohli made his test debut in 2011 against West Indies and has been India’s standout batter since Sachin Tendulkar’s retirement in 2013.

Kohli scored 9,230 runs, including 30 centuries and 31 half-centuries, at a test batting average of 46.85. He also led India in 68 test matches and was India’s most successful captain with 40 test wins.

The former India captain is one of the highest-profile people in cricket, with 271 million followers on Instagram and almost 68 million on X, and he owns batting records in the longest and the limited-overs formats. He’s expected to continue playing one-day international cricket, and he’s still heavily involved in the lucrative Twenty20 Indian Premier League.

Kohli also led India to the International Cricket Council’s No. 1 ranking in test cricket after taking over from Mahendra Singh Dhoni in 2014-15, and helped his side maintain a stronghold on that position for five years.

In 2018, he guided India to its first ever test series victory against Australia in Australia.

“As I step away from this format, it’s not easy — but it feels right,” Kohli posted on Instagram. “It’s been 14 years since I first wore the baggy blue in Test cricket. Honestly, I never imagined the journey this format would take me on. It’s tested me, shaped me, and taught me lessons I’ll carry for life.”

This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.

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AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket

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