Virat Kohli's Great Fall In Tests!

Once rated as one of the top batters of this generation, Virat Kohli's stock has fallen quite rapidly in Tests in recent years.
Rajneesh Gupta presents a detailed statistical analysis of Kohli's struggles with the bat since 2020.

Virat Kohli's struggles in Test cricket continues!

He has been one of the biggest letdowns for India in the first two Tests against New Zealand, managing just 88 runs, falling to spin three times in four innings.

Once rated as one of the top batters of this generation, Kohli's stock has fallen quite rapidly in Tests in the last few years. Since January 2020, he has managed just two centuries from 33 Tests, while scoring 1,833 runs at an average of 32, which has seen his Test career average drop below 50.

Despite the sharp dip, Kohli's run tally is quite formidable with 9,035 runs in 117 Tests at a healthy average of 48.31, including 29 hundreds. Only three players have aggregated more for India in Test cricket -- Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sunil Gavaskar.

Virat Kohli's overall record in Test cricket

At home Kohli has a very impressive career average of nearly 57, while his overseas average is a healthy 42.

Kohli in Tests at home and abroad

Till the end of 2019, Kohli enjoyed a remarkable run with the bat as he averaged around 55 with the bat in Tests.

However, things took a turn for the worse from 2020 onwards as his average has fallen below 33 -- that's a dip of 22 points in the last nearly five years!

His career can be judged in two phases: From 2011 to 2018 and from 2020 onwards.

Two phases of Kohli's Test career

What's more alarming is that this dip in form has been more prominent at home than overseas.

In 39 matches played in India between 2011 and 2019, Kohli averaged more than 68. However, in 15 home Tests since the start of 2020, his average has gone down to 32 -- that's more than half!

Kohli in Tests at home

Similarly, his average in overseas Tests since 2020 has fallen into the 30s since the start of 2020.

Kohli in Tests away from home

Between 2011 and 2019, Kohli churned centuries at a regular rate with 27 hundreds in 84 matches -- at a rate of one century every three matches. But since 2020, he has managed just two hundreds -- one in the West Indies and one against Australia at home!

And it's just not the hundreds, but the fifties have also dried up.

Earlier, while Kohli was scoring a fifty every 2.9 innings before 2020, he is now managing a fifty every 5.3 innings -- which may still be good enough for some other player, but certainly nowhere near the hefty standards he has set for himself.

Many of those fifties would be converted into big hundreds earlier, but this is not the case anymore. Up until 2019, Kohli was converting 55 percent of his fifties in to hundreds but since 2020, this figure has come down to a mere 18 percent.

Comparison of Kohli's 50-plus scores in Tests:

Conversion rate from fifties to centuries:

The charts below illustrate the distribution of Kohli's scores in the two phases of his career.

One of the biggest takeaways from these charts is the concentration of the knocks at the bottom along with the scarcity of big scores in the second phase. Since 2020, Kohli has scored more than 80 only twice in 58 innings. Between 2011 and 2019, he had 32 such scores in 141 innings.

In three of the four innings against New Zealand in the ongoing series, Kohli has fallen to spinners. In the first innings of the second Test in Pune, he was bowled after missing a full toss from left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner, while in the second innings he was trapped leg before wicket by the same bowler.

It continues the trend of his poor showing against spin since the start of 2020 as the table below indicates how Kohli has fared against pace and spin in the two phases.

While Kohli's performance against the pacers has also dipped, what's shocking is his performance against the spinners at home. Between 2011 and 2019, he averaged nearly 72 against the spinners at home, but it has come down to a shocking 29 since the start of 2020.

Kohli vs pace and spin -- at home

Similarly, in overseas Tests, Kohli's average against pace has taken a sharp fall to 32 since 2020.

Kohli vs pace and spin -- in away Tests:

Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com