First Time Since Test Retirement, Virat Kohli Resumes Practice With RCB. Watch

Star batter Virat Kohli attended a net practice session ahead of Royal Challengers Bengaluru's IPL 2025 match against Kolkata Knight Riders on Saturday. This match will mark the resumption of IPL 2025, which was suspended midway due to the border tensions between India and Pakistan. Apart from this, this practice was also Kohli's first on-field appearance after announcing his retirement from Test cricket. The 36-year-old batter called time on his Test career after playing 123 matches and scoring 9,230 runs.

RCB shared a video of Kohli on their official X account in which the star player was seen playing some glorious drive, pull and sweep shots.

He walks in. Eyes fierce. Aura unmatched.

The King has entered the arena.

: Nee Singam Dhan (Sony Music) pic.twitter.com/vad4ukLoR1 — Royal Challengers Bengaluru (@RCBTweets) May 15, 2025

RCB have been in a red-hot form in the ongoing season with eight victories in 11 games. KKR, on the other hand, are on the verge of elimination as the defending champions only won five matches out of 12.

IPL 2025 has been a great one for Kohli. In 11 matches, the right-handed batter has scored 505 runs and is currently the fourth-highest run-scorer of the season.

So far, he has hammered seven half-centuries in the ongoing season and the most-recent one came against the five-time champions Chennai Super Kings.

Earlier on Monday, Kohli left all the fans heartbroken after he announced his retirement from Test cricket. This call also came as a big shocker as before him, India skipper Rohit Sharma also hung his boots from the longest format.

With no Rohit and Kohli in the frame, it will be a hard time for the selectors to pick a squad for the upcoming five-match Test series between India and England, which will kick-start from June 20.

With Rohit's departure, the captain's seat has also fallen vacant with Shubman Gill, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, and Jasprit Bumrah being the top contenders for the position.

The Test series between against England will be a crucial one for India as it will begin their World Test Championship 2025-27 cycle. Kohli and Rohit's retirement is also likely to open the gates for new players in the Indian Test team.

Click here to read article