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 at Kolkata and his last ODI hundred came in August against the West Indies in the same year immediately after the World Cup.
In the last 20 ODIs after that game at Port of Spain where he scored his 43rd 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. As many as 26 of the 43 ODI hundreds have come when chasing and India has won a staggering 35 times whenever Kohli has scored a hundred.
In the last 20 ODIs where Kohli has not scored a hundred, India has lost 10 of those games - which is 50% of the games. India has been white-washed 3-0 twice during this perios - once against New Zealand and 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 out off late. He seems to be edging the balls more often than not to the keeper and getting out or falling in trying to play a loose shot. There was a time Kohli hardly played any shot in the air and most of his runs came in singles and doubles - which was his biggest strength where he used to milk the bowlers.
His running between the wickets was also a big plus and bowlers had no clue to get him once he survived his first 10 balls. Now a days, Kohli seems to be in a rush to get the scoreboard moving by trying to attack the bowlers instead of doing what he was best - rotating the strike - and this has given the bowlers an opportunity to pick his wicket.
Kohli is not in the right mind space and there is a saying when the mind controls you, you start to lose focus. King Kohli has to go back to the basics which got him 70 hundreds and need to curb his over-aggressive approach 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? That’s the question on every fans’ mind.
- Cricket enthusiast Anis Sajan is the Vice Chairman of Danube Group
