– Vinay Kumar
The Indian cricket team is currently playing the first match of the 3-match Test series on the Centurion ground on their tour of South Africa. After making 16 runs for the loss of 1 wicket on the third day, on the fourth day of the match, once again, the Indian team, who came to the field for the second innings batting, was bundled out for just 174 runs by the sharp bowling of South Africa. However, now South Africa will have to reach the target of 305 runs from India to beat India.
In this match, the match is seen in India’s clutches. However, due to the possibility of rain on the last day of the match, this match may turn out to be a draw. Team India’s handsome captain Virat Kohli has a chance to make a record in the history of Test cricket to India’s credit by winning the Test series for the first time in South Africa in this tour. But, when it comes to his personal performance, Virat Kohli, the ‘run machine’ who rained runs in South Africa in 2018, is not recovering from the poor form.
In the first Test match being played at Centurion’s ground, Indian team captain Virat Kohli came into the field holding the bat to play his last innings of the year 2021. But, hopes were dashed. Virat got out in the first innings of Team India by scoring just 18 runs in 35 second innings. With this, Kohli, who has hit a total of 70 centuries in all three formats of cricket, has spent two consecutive calendar years in a drought of centuries.
Kohli was dismissed for the second highest number of zeros in a calendar year
Let us remind you that 13 years ago today, the first year of the captain, who stepped into international cricket in 2008, passed without any century. But, after this, when Virat’s bat started speaking, not a single year passed till 2019 in which no century came out of his bat. The period of his poor performance started from here. And for the second year in a row, he did not score a century. Virat Kohli made his Test debut in 2011.
That year he played only 5 innings and was out for a duck (nil) twice. But, after that till 2018, the pavilion returned to zero only 6 times in total. But, in the next two years, this figure doubled. The history of Test cricket tells that in the year 2021, Virat Kohli was the victim of duck 4 times.
In the Test series played against New Zealand recently concluded this year (India vs New Zealand Test Series, 2021), Virat Kohli made the captain of former India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (MS Dhoni) the captain who was dismissed for the most number of times. The record was also broken. Not only this, in the last two years, the batting average of captain Virat Kohli has come down to 30.
Virat is constantly repeating a mistake
It is worth noting that in the first Test match being played in Centurion, Virat Kohli (Virat Kohli Captain Indian Cricket Team) gave his wicket by playing the same shot in both the consecutive innings. The surprising thing is that since 2018, Virat Kohli has been caught 11 times in the affair of playing a drive shot on the bowler’s out ball.
Now the question is arising, is Virat technically having trouble playing such balls or is it happening due to some mental problem. Virat Kohli will have to deal with those troubles to return to his form. Otherwise, his batting average will continue to decrease. Significantly, in the year 2020, Virat Kohli scored runs at an average of just 19.33. And, this year, that is, in 2021, his average was just 29.33.
There was a severe drought of a century in the run machine’s ‘run’ area.
History is witness that the year 2020 was the first year of Virat Kohli’s 12-year international career, when his bat did not score a century in any format. Now in the tour of South Africa (India vs South Africa Test Match Centurion, 2021), it completed the second year after his dismissal on the fourth day of the first Test match of the series being played at Centurion ground, when he scored a single century. Not in any format.
It is worth noting that when Virat Kohli made his debut in international cricket in 2008, he could not score a single century in the total 5 innings played that year. Yes, in 2009, he had definitely scored a century after playing 8 innings. At the same time, in the year 2010, he had scored 3 brilliant centuries at an average of 8.33 per innings.
Since 2010, the number of centuries coming out of Virat Kohli’s bat has been increasing. 4 century in 2011 (11.75 per innings), 8 century in 2012 (5.75 per innings), 6 century in 2013 (7.17 per innings), 8 century in 2014 (5.88 per innings), 4 century in 2015 (9.25 per innings), He played at an average of 7 centuries (5.86 per innings) in 2016, 11 centuries (4.73 per innings) in 2017, 11 centuries (4.27 per innings) in 2018 and 5 centuries (5.60) in 2019.
The history of international cricket shows that captain Virat Kohli has played 32 limited overs cricket (ODI/T20I) and 24 innings of Test cricket from 2020 to 2021, but the performance of Virat, who is going through bad form, would have been flat compared to his identity. Has been seen.