Virat Kohli slipped out of the top 25 rankings for Test batters for the first time since 2012 in ICC’s latest update. Here’s a timeline of his ranking in that time, including a significant stretch at the very top of the game.
Kohli debuted in Test cricket on June 20, 2011 against West Indies – scoring 4 & 15 in Kingston, Jamaica. After that match, he received his first ICC batting ranking – 149th. In November that year against the same opposition, he made it into the top 100 (98th) for the very first time. This is his journey since then.
In January 2012, Kohli scored his first Test century against Australia in Adelaide, scoring 116 & 22 even as India suffered a massive 298-run loss. Those performances lifted him 20 spots from 65th to 45th in the rankings, helping him break into the top 50.
After making the top 50 for the first time, Kohli did not drop out of it even once – and one year later, he made it to the top 20. Once again, it was a solid performance against Australia that helped him get there. Kohli’s 67* and 34 in Mohali put India on the road to a six-wicket win and took him to 20th in the batting rankings.
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Another year, another milestone. Kohli would struggle on the tour of England in the summer of 2014, but in February he made the top 10 for the very first time. After remaining in the 11th spot for three consecutive matches, Kohli made 38 & 105* against New Zealand in Wellington to move into 9th – pushing Younis Khan and Graeme Smith down.
It took over two and a half years for Kohli to get past the next marker of the top five. If England away caused a dip, England at home brought him back up. Captaining India, he slammed 167 & 81 against them in Visakhapatnam to set up a 246-run win and jump from 14th to 4th in the rankings, overtaking Hashim Amla.
On the 2018 tour of England, Kohli not only overcame his deficiencies from 2014, but also hit a height he never had before. Following knocks of 97 & 103 in the third Test at Trent Bridge, he dethroned Steve Smith to become the world’s No.1-ranked Test batter. Later that month, he would also achieve his career-best rating of 937 points, still the highest ever achieved by an Indian in Test cricket, across disciplines.
Kohli’s grip on the No.1 spot was vice-like, and it took nearly 13 whole months for him to be dislodged. In this time, he scored 995 runs in 12 Tests, averaging 47.4. The drop to No.2 finally came when he scored 76 & 0 against West Indies in Kingston – where it all began for him in whites. Smith, who was on the rise, overtook him.
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Almost exactly two years after losing his No.1 spot, Kohli dropped out of the top five for the first time in five years as his shaky form in red-ball cricket began to turn worrisome. He was only down to sixth, but there were signs of trouble.
In 2022, Kohli dipped further still, sliding from 9th to 13th after 11 & 20 in the postponed fifth Test of the series against England which had begun in 2021. Brows furrowed, and whispers over his form grew louder.
Kohli enjoyed a renaissance in 2023, averaging 55.9 across eight Tests and playing a stellar knock of 76 against South Africa in the Boxing Day Test at Centurion. That helped push him back into 9th place, and spark hopes of a revival in form.
There was no such revival on the cards for him, as he missed the high-scoring home series against England at the start of 2024, before suffering like nearly all of India’s batters when Bangladesh and New Zealand visited later in the year. He dropped to 22nd after scoring 4 & 1 in the third Test against the Kiwis, his lowest ranking since 2014.
In the first update to the rankings in 2025, Kohli hit a new low for the first time in 12 years. After the conclusion of a below-par tour of Australia, he fell to 27th place – his first time outside the top 25 since December 2012. With India’s next Test engagement in the summer of this year, will he be able – or even allowed – to recover?
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