Former India opener Shikhar Dhawan paid rich tributes to Virat Kohli, who announced his retirement from Test cricket on May 12. Kohli announced on Instagram, bringing down the curtains on a 14-year-old career in India whites.

He retired with 9230 runs in 123 Tests with 30 centuries and 31 fifties to his name. He had made his India Test debut in 2011 in the West Indies and played his final Test in Sydney against Australia in 2025.

Speaking about his former India and Delhi teammate Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan remembers with fondness how Kohli, being his vivacious self, celebrated the occasion with equal fervor, bouncing, applauding, whistling, and soaking up all of the excitement from the dressing room.

"I scored 187 in that match. When I reached my century, Virat came out of the dressing room to cheer for me. He really enjoyed that century. When I went back to the dressing room, he played loud Punjabi songs, and we continued to celebrate," Shikhar Dhawan told Times of India.  

Not only did fans cry when Kohli abruptly announced his retirement from Test cricket on Monday, but Dhawan was also taken aback. There is still a lot of Test cricket left in Kohli, in his opinion. Dhawan believes that Kohli could have continued to relish the challenges and benefits of red-ball cricket for a longer period of time, given his exceptional fitness, insatiable need for runs, and unwavering will for victory.

"I absolutely believe he could have continued playing red-ball cricket because he is physically very fit. But he started quite early, and mentally, only he knows whether he wanted to keep playing or not. Sometimes a player can be physically fit but not feel it mentally. Virat is the only person who can answer that, and I’m sure he must have taken this decision after a lot of thought. He always treated Test cricket above any other format. So, he must have given it a lot of consideration before making this big decision," he added.

For Dhawan, who has seen Kohli from close quarters and has watched him grow in stature, he will remember his friend for the infectious energy that he brought.

"Kohli was always ready for fun — cracking jokes, imitating teammates, and never missing a moment to lighten the mood. He’s very energetic, so there was always a lot of fun and laughter — pulling each other’s legs was a regular thing. He really enjoys mimicking others, doing impressions — he’s very good at it. Whether it’s copying how someone walks or imitating someone’s voice like Ishant Sharma’s—we’ve seen that side of him. Our sense of humor matched well, so we shared a lot of laughs together. These are all really good memories," said Dhawan.

Dhawan praised Virat's mindset, discipline, and unwavering drive for achievement when pressed about what made him so unique.

"I have seen Virat since his childhood, and he always had the hunger to do something big, to become great, to become the number one in his path. From the time I saw him, even when he didn’t have full control over his diet, there was still a lot of discipline. And then when he got into the Indian team, the change that came in him was that he had to improve his diet too, and enhance his game through fitness.

From there, the way he surged ahead... even when he wasn’t fully successful, his mindset remained that he would perform, do well, and move forward for the country. That hunger to progress was always there. And along with that hunger, he took his discipline to a whole new level — he became very disciplined. And it was the combination of both that took him so far," Dhawan signed off.

Virat Kohli retires as India’s 4th highest run-getter in Tests, behind only Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, and Sunil Gavaskar.

(Times of India inputs)