Virat Kohli hits new 7-year low amid prolonged century-less run in Test cricket

Only twice in his career has Virat Kohli recorded his lowest ever Test numbers in a calendar year. In 2020, after cricket resumed in post Covid era, Kohli played just three Tests for India, averaging only 19.33.

Two years later, as Kohli prolonged his century-less run in Tests, he capped off his 2022 by recording yet another low, emulating his horror run in England in 2014.

In September, during the Asia Cup match against Afghanistan, Kohli had ended his three-year-long drought of international century with a stunning 122*, which was also his maiden ton on T20I format. A fortnight back, during the ODI series against Bangladesh, he ended his long wait of 1214 days to score his 44th ton in ODIs as he smashed a 91-ball 113.

When the Test series against Bangladesh had begun last week in Chattogram, it was expected of Kohli to break his his century-less run in Tests as well, having last scored his hundred in the format against the same opponent in 2019, in the historic Pink Ball Test at the Eden Gardens. However, after getting dismissed for just one run in the final innings of the second Test in Dhaka on Saturday, Kohli capped off one of his worst ever Test series, having scored just 45 runs in four innings. His average of 15 is now his second-worst ever in a bilateral series of at least two Tests in the Asian subcontinent, and fourth worst overall.

With the quick dismissal on Saturday by Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Kohli also equalled his worst ever run in Test cricket, having gone 10 innings without even having scored a half-century. The only previous time he had recorded the same was back in 2014 in the England tour, when he had scored 134 runs at an average of 13.40.

His last ten scores read as – 1 & 24 vs Bangladesh in 2nd Test, 19* & 1 vs Bangladesh in 1st Test, 20 & 11 vs England, 13 & 23 vs Sri Lanka in 2nd Test, 45 vs Sri Lanka in 1st Test and 29 vs South Africa in second innings of 3rd Test. His last half-century knock came in the first innings of the Cape Town Test, his final match as the captain of the Indian team, where he had scored 201-ball 79.