Virat Kohli on Saturday (January 15) shocked everyone by stepping down as the captain of the Indian Test team.

He took to Twitter to make the big announcement, a day after India’s 2-1 Test series loss to South Africa.

Amid the speculations regarding his resignation, a report published in Times Now claims that Kohli first delivered the decision about leaving captaincy to head coach Rahul Dravid. He then informed BCCI secretary Jay Shah on Saturday afternoon and his resignation was accepted at the same time.

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After the World T20 World Cup 2021 in November, Virat had stepped down as T20I captain while he was sacked as ODI skipper ahead of the ongoing South Africa tour.

Given that he wasn’t a white-call captain anymore, Kohli was expected to lead the Test side for a long time but he had different plans in store.

"It's been 7 years of hard work, toil and relentless perseverance everyday to take the team in the right direction. I've done the job with absolute honesty and left nothing out there. Every thing has to come to a halt at some stage and for me as Test Captain of India, it's now," he said in a statement.

Virat Kohli had taken charge of the Indian Test team in 2014 and the national side achieved tremendous success under him in the longest format. He led India in 68 Tests, winning 40 matches and losing 17.

The highlight of Kohli’s Test captaincy tenure was the Test series victory in Australia in 2018-19. He also led India to two Test series wins in West Indies and Sri Lanka. Under his captaincy, Team India were leading 2-1 in England last year before the series got postponed due to COVID cases in the visiting camp.

(With Times Now Inputs)