Friday 19 / April / 2024
Where are the hundreds from the bat of Virat Kohli which has now dried up for more than two years? A player who was scoring hundreds in both Test matches and ODI for fun has not scored a ODI hundred in his last 20 ODIs knocks and 15 test matches.
Just for the record his last Test hundred came against Bangladesh in November 2019 against Bangladesh at Kolkata and his last ODI hundred came on 14th Aug against West Indies which was too was in 2019 immediately after the World cup.
In the last 20 ODIs after that game at Port of Spain where he scored 43 ODI century, he has gone on to make 10 half centuries and the closest he came was twice against Australia when he scored 89 and got out. His ODI average too has dropped below 60 and is now on 58.34 after 259 matches which is still the best among all current players who have played more than 100 ODI games with a superb strike rate of 93 which is again the best for the number of games he has played. Twenty six of the 43 ODI hundreds have come when chasing and India has won a staggering 35 times whenever Virat Kohli has scored a hundred.
But in the last 20 ODIs where Virat Kohli has not scored a hundred, India has lost 10 of those games which is fifty percent of the games, where twice India has been white washed 3/0 once against Newzealand and recently this year against South Africa which shows how impactful his centuries are in India winning the ODI games.
What is noticeable is the way he has been getting off late. He seems to be more often than not edging the balls to the keeper and getting out or trying to play a loose shot. There was a time Virat Kohli never played any shot in the air and most of his runs came of singles and doubles which was his biggest strength where he used to milk the bowlers. His running between the wickets has been his biggest strength and bowlers had no clue to get him once he survived his first ten balls but now a days Virat Kohli seems to be in rush to get the scoreboard moving by trying to attack the bowlers instead of doing what he was best at rotating the strike which has given the bowlers an opportunity to pick his wicket.
Virat Kohli is not in the right mind space and there is a saying when the mind controls you, you see to loose focus. King Kohli has to go back to the basics which got him 70 hundreds and need to be over aggressive which has led to his downfall. He has one more chance tomorrow in the dead rubber against the west indies to end the century drought. Can he get it? Will he get it? Is the question on every fans mind.
