Will Virat Kohli come out of Test retirement? His childhood coach reveals: 'We are talking about it'

It has been more than a year since Virat Kohli announced his retirement from Test cricket. It was on 12 May, 2025 when Kohli announced a shock retirement from Tests after a 14-year career in the longest format.

Time and again, the Delhi cricketer's fans have urged Kohli to come out of Test retirement. Amid all this, Kohli's childhood coach, Rajkumar Sharma, recently spoke on his former student possibly coming out of Test retirement.

However, Sharma did not give many details regarding this. “Many people have told me to ask Virat to return to Test cricket because he listens to you," Sharma said on Express Cafe, a news podcast produced by The Indian Express.

When asked if he spoke to Kohli on this issue, Sharma said: “We are talking about it; let’s see what happens."

The 37-year-old finished his Test career with 31 half-centuries and 30 centuries. Kohli enjoyed a stellar run as the captain of the Indian Test team, leading the side in 68 matches - India won 40 of those, whereas they lost 17 games. Eleven other matches ended in a draw.

Kohli took over as India's Test captain from MS Dhoni during the 2014-15 tour of Australia, when India were ranked No.7 in the ICC Test rankings. India completed a meteoric rise to become the No 1 Test team in the world.

India maintained the No 1 spot for five consecutive years between 2017 and 2021, and it was during this period that India won a historic Test series in Australia in 2018-19. Under Kohli, India also reached the final of the 2021 World Test Championship (WTC), where they lost to New Zealand.

Kohli's last Test series was against Australia during the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy series Down Under. He scored an unbeaten 100 in the second innings of the first Test in Perth that India won, but failed to continue that kind of form in the rest of the series. The right-handed batter eventually ended the series with 190 runs from nine innings at an average of 23.75.

Kohli retired from T20Is after India’s triumphant 2024 T20 World Cup campaign, but continues to play ODIs.

During a recent interview on the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) podcast, Kohli spoke about his aspirations to play the 2027 ODI World Cup.

“We’re in mid-2026. I have been asked many times, ‘Do you want to play in 2027?’ Why would I leave home, get my stuff over and be like ‘I don’t know what I want’,” he said. “Of course, if I’m playing, I want to play cricket, I want to carry on. Playing a World Cup for India is amazing," he added.

Kohli is currently playing for RCB in IPL 2026 as they look to defend their title. The Rajat Patidar-led side qualified for the IPL 2026 playoffs with a 23-run win over Punjab Kings (PBKS) in Dharamsala on 17 May.