New Delhi: Only 742 runs in 25 innings at an average of 30.91 from Fenruary 2021 suggests Virat Kohli’s powers in Tests have been on the decline for a while now.
During this three and half years, the former India batter (29 centuries) has only scored one hundred in red-ball cricket to see his generational rivals Joe Root (35), Steve Smith (32) and Kane Williamson (32) all overtake him in the list of number of tons.
In 2020, Kohli lead the pack of four with 27, followed by Smith (26), Williamson (21) and Root (17).
That wouldn’t concern Kohli, after all, he has achieved more than enough in international cricket to worry about petty numbers. But it could serve as motivation when Kohli sees Smith against him in the Border-Gavaskar series.
Coping severe criticism for managing only 93 runs in six innings at an average of 15.50 against New Zealand, Kohli could score a mere 99 runs in four innings against Bangladesh prior to the NZ series.
To see the once prolific run-getter struggle to even stay at the wicket for long and bat with circumspection is not a pretty sight. The once commanding presence, fluent strokeplay seems a distant memory.
Dip since 2020
From 2024 to 2019, Kohli had the third best batting average among batters with at least 3000 runs of 58.71, accumulating 5695 runs in 62 games with 22 centuries.
Since 2020, Kohli has the second poorest batting average of 33.59 among batters of minimum 1600 runs, with only 1646 runs in 29 outings including two tons.
Against New Zealand, he repeatedly fell prey to the spinners, which Ian Chappell has attributed to his faulty footwork.
Pointing to Kohli getting bowled to a low full-toss from left armer Mitchell Santner in the first innings of the second Test in Pune, the former Australia skipper said it was enough to show his indecisiveness and error-prone judgement.
“Star batter Virat Kohli’s first-inning dismissal was the perfect example of India’s lack of decisive footwork,” Chappell wrote in his ESPNcricinfo column.
“Kohli was clean bowled by a delivery from Santner that, if the batter had taken even a small pace out of his crease, he could have hit on the full. However, instead of Kohli’s lack of decisive footwork being the culprit, his shot selection was questioned.”
With a World Test Championship final spot at stake, and a crunch five Test away series against Australia on the horizon, Kohli’s batting woes couldn’t have come at a worse time for India.
Kohli had once earlier navigated through choppy waters, scoring heavily on an England tour in 2019 after his well documented struggles in 2014. The 35-year-old would surely believe he has it in him to bounce back again.
Else, as reports suggest, the BCCI could be compelled to bring down the sword of Damocles on his ornmented head.
