Rajesh Rai
The magical three-figure figure is not coming out of Virat Kohli’s bat. His last century was against Bangladesh in November 2019. Since that innings, Virat has not been able to score any century in 70 innings. Against Sri Lanka, it was expected that Virat would score a century but he could only score 45, 23 and 13 runs in three innings of two Tests. Virat’s test average has dropped below 50 for the first time in five years. His average was 49.55 the last time he dropped from 50 in his 60th Test in August 2017. Since then, his career average has been above 50 from 40 consecutive Tests. But now his average has gone down to 50. Virat now has 8043 runs in 101 matches at an average of 49.95.
Before long gone 43 centuries in 27 one-day test in his bat. T-20, he has scored 3296 runs at a strike rate of average and 137.67 of 51.50 in 97 matches. But the question is not here T20 but the Test and ODI. It can also be argued that not one of the smaller 20 format they missed out on a century, since the beginning of last year, he had three T-20 in Ahmedabad against England with an unbeaten 73, 77 and played innings of 80 runs. His ODI form has been fantastic. He also made frequent fifty four of which hit 10 centuries in his last 19 innings. This will be the way of scoring so many questions on any other batsman passing form are fired as vast.
Perhaps the reason why Kohli’s current century drought is attracting attention is because it is not normal for a player of his superior level. Of course, the overall average of the 22 players mentioned above is not even 40, Kohli is the only batsman among them to have an average of more than 50 in Test and ODI careers. Kohli has so far scored 20,000 runs in these two formats at an average of 54.77. Among these 22 batsmen who are close to Kohli, he is Andrew Strauss, who has scored 11242 runs in Tests and ODIs at an average of 38.77.
Among these batsmen, Strauss is the only one who is close to Kohli in terms of century, Strauss has scored 27 half-centuries and Kohli has scored 70 half-centuries. If we talk about the drought of the top five longest centuries in Tests and ODIs, whether the batsmen are dismissed or not, then there are 32 such cases more than Kohli. Leaving aside the advantage of not out, Kohli still ranks fifth in terms of average.
Desmond Haynes could not score a century in 70 consecutive innings from March 1991 to April 1993 but he averaged 35.77 the highest among these 32 batsmen. Kohli would have scored 17 centuries in seven different parts of 49 innings in Tests and ODIs from August 2017 to January 2019, as Kohli has scored 26 or 27 half-centuries in these 49 innings. Kohli now has 73 innings without a century, including T20 Internationals.
Rohit Sharma, who replaced Virat as India’s captain, has defended him, saying that he just needs one good innings. The tour of England in 2014 was one such occasion in Virat’s career when his bat was going downhill with him. Even then, captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni continued to defend him, which ultimately benefited Virat. Virat’s highest score was 39 runs in 10 Test innings of the England tour. Whereas in the four matches of the ODI series, his highest score was 40 runs.
But Dhoni’s faith remained in him. The result of this belief was that after returning from England, he played a brilliant innings of 127 runs in the third ODI in the home series against the West Indies at Dharamsala. Virat’s last century in ODIs came against West Indies at Port of Spain on 14 August 2019 when he scored 114 not out. But after this century, a century in 21 ODIs is away from his bat, while during this he has scored 89 runs twice.
His last century in Test cricket was 136 against Bangladesh in November 2019 but after that his highest score in 32 Test innings was 79 runs against South Africa in Cape Town earlier this year. Had this situation happened with any other batsman, he would have been asked to go to the Ranji Trophy to improve his performance but it was the case of a player of a very high standard like Virat, so everyone was hoping that his form would return sooner or later. Will come Now there are no international matches for two months and during this time only IPL will happen. In such a situation, all eyes will be on Virat’s performance.