There would have been those who thought that downsizing to become a one-format player would make Virat Kohli a peripheral figure in Indian cricket. Think again. By ending 2025 as he did, with his best run of form in years, Kohli has opened up the possibility of being part of India’s World Cup campaign in 2027 – and the quest for a trophy India last won when he was a stripling of 22 back in 2011.
After a disappointing Test tour of Australia, that went rapidly downhill for both team and player after a memorable victory in Perth, few had any inkling that it would be the last time that they saw Kohli – India’s most successful Test captain, by a distance – in whites. The retirement announcement in May, just weeks before the tour of England, caught millions of fans by surprise. But Kohli seemed at peace as he brought the curtain down on a storied red-ball career that saw him make 9,230 Test runs in 123 Tests, and an average of 46.85 – with 30 centuries and 31 fifties.
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By then, he had already proved his enduring value in the format where he has always been king. At the Champions Trophy in Dubai in February-March – India refused to play matches in Pakistan – he made 100* against Pakistan and an assured 84 in the semi-final run chase against Australia. But with a seven-month gap between that tournament, which India won, and the white-ball tour of Australia, that was plenty of apprehension about how the old-stagers – Rohit Sharma is also a one-format asset now – would cope with lack of game time.
Kohli showed definite signs of rust while failing to score in the first two matches, but was back to his imperious best in Sydney, signing off from Australia with an unbeaten 74, and a match-winning partnership alongside Rohit. A few weeks later, in front of adoring home audiences, he smashed back-to-back centuries in Ranchi (135 off 120 balls) and Raipur (102 off 93) before helping Yashasvi Jaiswal seal the series win with a blistering 65 not out off just 45 balls in Vizag.
He himself noted that he hadn’t batted that well for “2–3 years”. There was no let-up in the on-field intensity or the running between wickets, and he even allowed himself a celebratory piece of the cake that Jaiswal cut after his maiden ODI century.
Kohli’s 2026 will begin with three more ODIs against New Zealand in January, before India go months and months without playing the format. After he retired from Tests, the question was always whether he would stay primed to play the least-favoured of the three formats. On recent evidence, the answer is an emphatic yes. The king of ODIs isn’t going anywhere just yet.
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