Mohammad Kaif, former India cricketer, has shared that he feels Virat Kohli retired from Tests because of a lack of backing and importance, and also that he felt that people within the management didn’t have faith in him.
Virat Kohli announced his retirement from Tests in May 2025, finishing his red-ball India career with 9230 runs in 123 Tests at an average of 46.85 with 30 centuries and 31 fifties, including the best score of 254*. He also captained India in 68 Tests, winning 40 of them and keeping the Indian team at the No. 1 spot for five straight years.
Kohli’s retirement from Tests came after a troubling Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2025 Test series in Australia, where despite scoring a century in the first game in Perth, he struggled for the remainder of the series.
Kaif believes the decision was influenced by Kohli’s dissatisfaction with the environment around him.
“When I look at his interviews about this, I feel like there is some disappointment on his face. Even if his form was bad, you are talking about Virat Kohli. It seemed that he felt like he was not getting importance and backing, and the people within had no faith in him. I still think if he had continued, he would have definitely made a comeback. He is known for comebacks," Kaif said on his YouTube channel.
Kaif highlighted how Kohli has the ability to recover from poor form, citing his performance in the 2025 Australia ODI series, where he began with two ducks in the series but finished with a brilliant fifty.
“If he had been removed after those two ducks in Australia, would we have been able to praise him or look at such knocks from him now? I can understand if it is a new player. But this is Virat Kohli. You cannot apply the same things to him as you do to others. Your form will go bad. No one is a machine, and this is not a video game,” Kaif added.
Kohli has been in brilliant form in ODIs since then, scoring four hundreds and five fifties in his last 11 ODI innings. Virat, recently in an interview, confirmed that the 2027 World Cup will be his last outing for India in international cricket.
However, Kaif urged Kohli to continue beyond the ICC World Cup next year.
“He is fit and scoring runs. This will benefit Gill, who is a young captain. Looking at the bowling, Gill is facing a tough time there due to the lack of senior players. The longer Kohli stays, the better it will be for Gill as a captain and for India overall that way," he said.
Kohli will be in action for India in the second ODI against West Indies on September 30 in Guwahati. He had scored a match-winning 139* in the first game in Thiruvananthapuram, as India chased down a 296-run target with 8 wickets in hand.
