Virat Kohli's retirement from Test cricket on Monday came as a shock to many. For India head coach Gautam Gambhir, it didn't come as a surprise as the former India opener was in the thick of things over the last few days. Reacting for the first time to Kohli's retirement, Gambhir called the former India captain a 'lion'. “A man with lion’s passion! Will miss u cheeks….,” Gambhir wrote on X (formerly Twitter). The last time both spent time in the Indian dressing room in Tests was in Australia during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which India lost 1-3.  

“It’s been 14 years since I first wore the baggy blue in Test cricket. Honestly, I never imagined the journey this format would take me on. It’s tested me, shaped me, and taught me lessons I’ll carry for life,” Kohli wrote on his retirement post. “There’s something deeply personal about playing in whites. The quiet grind, the long days, the small moments that no one sees but that stay with you forever. As I step away from this format, it’s not easy — but it feels right. I’ve given it everything I had, and it’s given me back so much more than I could’ve hoped for,” he added. Having made his India debut in 2008, Kohli and Gambhir shared the same dressing room for a long time across formats. While Gambhir played his last match for India in 2016, Kohli continued. 

Meanwhile, ICC chairman Jay Shah also thanked Virat Kohli for his contributions to Test cricket, saying he championed the longest format of the game during the era of rise of T20 cricket. Virat Kohli played 123 Tests and scored 9230 runs, including 30 hundreds. He averaged 46.85 in the format. He led India in 68 matches and won 40 of them, becoming one of the greatest captains to have led a team in the red-ball format .Kohli will continue to represent India in one-day internationals. The former captain has been in good form in T20s, scoring 505 runs in 11 matches in the now-suspended IPL 2025 season.