If someone had told me in 2019 that Virat Kohli will end up with a Test average under 50 and would score less than 10,000 runs, I wouldn’t have believed them.

That pretty much sums up Kohli’s Test career, which started off slow, peaked for six years and ended with prolonged slump which lasted for another six.

The result? A good Test career which fell short of being a great one.

I still remember Kohli’s entry into the Test team, at a time when breaking into the Indian middle order was almost impossible. Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman were still scoring runs, as they had for more than a decade prior.

He got his chance in West Indies in 2011, where a few players decided to rest after winning the World Cup. Kohli had a forgettable series then, but everyone knew that he was going to take Indian cricket by storm in the coming years.

His breakout came in Australia: on Dravid and Laxman’s final tour, amid a misfiring Indian line-up that succumbed 4-0, the then-23-year old was a shining light, scoring his maiden Test century in Adelaide – Dravid and Laxman’s final Test – and scoring one of the great ODI centuries of all time in the subsequent Commonwealth Bank Series against Sri Lanka.

In the year 2013, when a young team under MS Dhoni left for South Africa, the era of Kohli had finally begun. Even though India lost that series, he showed what he is capable of in Test cricket as a batter with a good technique who could take on the best bowlers in the world.

Aside from a horror show in England in 2014, Kohli for the next six years was incredible in Tests. He not only scored runs at will, but at a rate which was phenomenal to watch for fans and envious for the rest of the cricketing world.

He was also doing something which none of his peers were able to achieve: scoring runs in all three formats with incredible consistency.

From December 2013 until November 2019, he averaged 59 with 23 hundreds in 64 Tests, an incredible peak where he scored runs against all opponents and in all countries he batted in.

He was doing this while averaging 50+ in T20s and ODIs too. He also took over the captaincy of the Test team during this period, and took India to the next level in Tests, winning a series in Australia for the first time.

The Indian test team during his reign was going through a golden era in the format – a team which didn’t lost a home series for a decade and also challenged the best in the world away. A team which finally realised how important it is to have a good pace attack to compete, alongside spin wizards.

Kohli’s biggest legacy is how he turned around the careers of Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav. For a period of five years under his leadership Indian pacers were the best in the world. The combination of Jasprit Bumrah, Sharma and Shami took loads of wickets at an incredible average, making them the best pace bowling trio in the world during that time.

All this made his batting slump post-November 2019 a bit of a surprise. A slump which was so relentless that it did not let up for almost six years, up until his retirement.

Josh Hazlewood celebrates taking the wicket of Virat Kohli. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)

Kohli had 27 Test hundreds in 84 Tests up until then. He managed to score just three more in his last 39. His average dipped from a great 54.97, to a merely very good 46.85.

It means that, while Virat Kohli is a legend of India cricket, his Test career as a batter falls short of greatness.

Kohli now retires with a record which is very good but, as a fan, a bit disappointing, considering the talent he possessed.

His retirement is a bit of an anti-climax, as he did deserve to have a send off befitting a player of his legacy, but the struggles of the Test team probably has hastened his decision.

Kohli will be sorely missed, and his retirement on the back of Rohit Sharma’s exit leaves a big hole in the Test line-up, but all good things should come to an end.

Even though Kohli’s Test career as a batter did fall short of greatness, he for sure is an Indian legend who has given us numerous great memories in Tests.

That is what we will carry with us as fans.