There’s a strange poetry in endings. You rarely know when they’re coming, and yet, when they arrive, something in you just knows. Maybe this October when Virat Kohli walks out on Australian soil again it will feel like that. The last light of day on a long, glorious journey.
Australia feels familiar to him; the audience practically exists within his narrative. Fifteen years of jeers, cheers, intense stares… it’s become routine. Perhaps this occasion marks the conclusion.
He’s retired from T20Is and Tests already. The ODI series starting October 19 might just be the last time we see Virat Kohli’s bat glint under the Australian sun. Which, honestly, is where his real story began.
But to understand what this tour means, you have to rewind through time—to every bruise, every roar, every century that shaped him here.
2011–12: Baptism by Fire
That summer, a young player arrived in Australia brimming with success: eight one-day international centuries to his name, a World Cup win under his belt, alongside an air of self-assurance suggesting he had all the answers. What he didn’t have yet was the armour you only earn after you’ve been cut open by failure.
India collapsed through that series, 0–4. Senior players faltered. Amidst the clamour, Kohli – still just a kid, really – battled unseen demons. Dismissals stung, doubts swirled, jeers echoed; some insisted he lacked the grit for the longest format. The pressure broke through in Sydney he later admitted he was “not in a good mental space.”
He countered in Perth, scoring 75 runs that carried enormous weight – more like a century. Later, during a visibly emotional press conference, he confessed bewilderment at the criticism directed toward him. Then came Adelaide. His first Test century. A release more than celebration. A fist shot up, a sound escaped his lips – a private roar. That’s how Virat Kohli became a Test player. The fire had found its oxygen.
Hobart 2012: 133 Reasons to Believe Again
Hobart’s chilly air held a tense scene: India needed 321 runs from just 40 overs, or their hopes in the tournament were done. Most had already given up. Kohli hadn’t.
He treated Lasith Malinga like a net bowler; 133* off just 86 balls. A young side that had forgotten how to smile suddenly remembered what victory felt like.
That knock changed everything. A raw energy took over, completely natural – feelings bursting forth at just the right moment. Kohli didn’t merely secure victory that evening; he signalled a new chapter for Indian cricket, making it entirely his own.
2014–15 : The Leader Is Born
Two years had passed when Kohli came back – he wasn’t the same young kid anymore.
England had chewed him up earlier that year. He came with a reputation in tatters and an average below 40. But Adelaide, once again, was waiting for him.
His first Test as captain. Australia posted a huge total. India responded with grit; Kohli scored 115 in first inning, following that up with 141. They pursued 364 on the final day, refusing to settle for a draw. He played for a win.
India fell short, but it didn’t matter. That game changed the tone of Indian cricket. It said, we don’t run from battles anymore.
The tour concluded with his Test average nearing 47 with almost 700 runs and 4 centuries, and the world had seen a leader who wasn’t afraid to lose in pursuit of greatness.
2015: Gold at Adelaide
When the World Cup returned to Australia, Kohli was already the heartbeat of the team. Against Pakistan at Adelaide of course, Adelaide again, he scored a masterful 107. Runs in that match don’t count as numbers; they count as currency of emotion.
He later said, “I hate losing, and I play passionately.” It wasn’t just a quote—it was his core philosophy. Every run that day had intent, every single was a statement that India wouldn’t buckle under pressure. It was another chapter of him mastering the stage that once intimidated him.
2016: The Year Everything He Touched Turned to Gold
There are hot streaks, and then there was Virat Kohli in 2016. Consider this: during that Australian tour, his scores read 91, 59, 117, 106, a brief 8, then 90, 59, finally 50. A remarkable eight innings showcasing unbelievable consistency.
2016 was his purple year, maybe his brightest. Every innings looked inevitable. His cover drive felt premeditated by the gods. And yet, you could tell he still wanted more—because with Kohli, enough never felt like enough
2018: History Bows
This time, he came not as a rising star but as the man the world wanted to dethrone. Australia, as always, didn’t make it easy. The pitches were brutal, the bowlers merciless. Kohli batted like a craftsman from another age.
At Perth, he scored one of the most technically perfect hundreds ever seen in those conditions 123 runs of defiance. It seemed the battle had always been his destiny.
India finished the tour having accomplished something remarkable: a first-ever Test series victory on Australian soil. Their captain, Kohli, didn’t just win; he made history. Moreover, he kept going, securing an ODI series triumph alongside a stunning century in Adelaide – 299 chased down with flair that felt almost cinematic
At that point, it wasn’t a rivalry anymore. It was a love story between a player and a country that never let him breathe easy—and maybe that’s why he thrived here.
2020: Between Silence and Solitude
Then came the pandemic. Empty stands, eerie quiet, bio-bubbles. Yet when Kohli walked to the crease in Adelaide, it felt like time stood still. He moved with a natural flow, looking graceful as could be. Until that run-out—a freak moment that ended what might have been another hundred.
The Indian team crumbled to just 36 runs in 2nd innings. Kohli flew home for the birth of his child. And the man who always played like a storm quietly disappeared into the calm of family life.
There was no anger, no noise. Just stillness. Maybe that was his truest form of maturity.
2022: Miracle at MCG
And then came that night. 23 Oct, 2022. India vs Pakistan. Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Kohli wasn’t the same man anymore. The runs had dried up. The captaincy was gone. The critics had grown loud
He hadn’t.
What followed was something you couldn’t script even if you tried. India were 31 for 4, chasing 160 under pressure that could break anyone. Kohli clawed his way to 15 off 24, then exploded into immortality. Those two sixes off Haris Rauf; physics should have refused them, but somehow they cleared the MCG.
When the final run was scored, Kohli dropped to his knees. The crowd sang his name like a hymn. He looked up at the Melbourne sky, eyes wet, maybe whispering to himself, “The only time you truly fail is when you decide to give up.”
He hadn’t.
That night wasn’t about redemption. It was about endurance. It was proof that belief, when stretched long enough, bends the universe.
2024 : Farewell That Wasn’t Written Yet
He visited Australia for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy last year. A lovely hundred came from his bat in Perth; that made seven Test centuries scored while playing in Australia.
It looked like the old rhythm was back. But the fairytale didn’t last long. Sydney, quietly, became his final Test appearance. No fanfare. Just silence.
It’s strange, how the man who once roared at the world left Test cricket without a word.
Numbers Behind the Legend
In cold print, numbers tell their own love story.
Virat Kohli has scored 12 international centuries in Australia; the most by any visiting batter. For perspective, Travis Head; the current Australian run-machine; has 11 centuries at home (Most in current Aussie squad for upcoming ODI series). And if you combine the great Sachin Tendulkar and Rohit Sharma’s records in Australia, they also sum up to 12. Kohli alone matches their combined total.
Since 2012, only David Warner and Steve Smith have scored more 50-plus innings in Australia than Kohli. No other Australian player even comes close. Among visiting batters, the next best are Joe Root and Rohit Sharma; with 13 fifty-plus scores each. Kohli’s record of 31 50 plus scores towers above everyone else.
He’s also been named Player of the Match seven times in Australia since 2012. That’s more than triple the next Indian; no other Indian cricketer in this golden era, not Rohit, not Bumrah, not Ashwin, not Pant; has more than two such awards there. That alone says what kind of mark he left on these grounds.
Country That Shaped Him
Australia was never a venue for Kohli; it was his mirror. Every version of him exists here: the hot-headed rookie, the unbreakable chaser, the fearless captain, the wounded fighter, the poet who found peace in struggle.
When he walks out again this October, maybe for the last time, every blade of grass on those grounds will remember him. Because this isn’t just where he scored runs—this is where he grew up.
He came to Australia as a boy who wanted to prove himself. He leaves as a man who already has.