India’s star batter Virat Kohli called time on his illustrious Test career on May 12, 2025. He confirmed his retirement through an Instagram post.

Less than a month after bidding farewell from Test cricket, Kohli has received a request from IPL chairman Arun Singh Dhumal to reverse his decision.

Kohli’s decision to call it quits came ahead of the England tour. He was expected to travel to UK for the upcoming five-Test series that will mark the beginning of India’s new WTC cycle. It was also reported that the BCCI officials were in talks with the stalwart to make him change his mind, but they couldn’t succeed.

Speaking to PTI, Dhumal lauded Kohli’s ever-improving fitness and compared his commitment to cricket with Roger Federer’s and Novak Djokovic’s to Tennis.

Dhumal also hoped that Kohli won’t retire from IPL if Royal Challengers Bengaluru manage to clinch the IPL 2025 title.

“Fitness that Virat has, he is probably fitter than he was in season 1. I want Virat to continue playing even after RCB wins the trophy. The whole country would want Virat to continue, and I would want him to reconsider his decision to retire from Test Cricket. I hope that he doesn’t take retirement from IPL, he is the greatest ambassador for the sport. His commitment to cricket is equivalent to what Roger Federer or Novak Djokovic is to Tennis, so I want him to continue," Dhumal said.

When asked about the future of IPL, Dhumal clarified BCCI’s stance that there’s no team expansion planned in the near future.

“Phenomenal season, we had a break in between, given how the momentum has come back, it has been phenomenal, RCB has already qualified and we are going to have a great final, We are now just two games away with one team lifting the trophy," the IPL chairman said.

“There is no discussion about expansion of IPL in terms of number of teams, we just added 2 teams three seasons back, there is enough time for that, the quality of IPL is very high," he added.

Coming to Virat Kohli, he played an instrumental role in India's red-ball resurgence over the past decade with his aggressive captaincy, prolific batting and unmatched intensity on the field.

Under his captaincy, India were competitive everywhere and registered their maiden Test series triumph on Australian soil in 2018-19.

Overall, Kohli led his country in 68 Test matches and suffered defeat in only 17 of them. With 40 wins and 11 draws, he boasts a remarkable win percentage of 58.82, making him the most successful Test captain in India's history.

The 36-year-old finished his Test career with 9230 runs from 123 matches at an average of 46.85, including 30 centuries and 31 fifties, with the highest score of 254.

Having retired from T20Is last year, Virat Kohli will now focus solely on the One-Day International format.