Indian Test skipper Virat Kohli's lean patch hit a new low on Wednesday as the 33-year-old scripted an unwanted Indian record surpassing former Indian cricketer and incumbent head coach Rahul Dravid.
Kohli scored a 32-ball 18 on Day 4 of the opening Test against South Africa at the SuperSport Park in Centurion, chasing yet another wide ball from Marco Jansen. Earlier in the first innings, Kohli looked well set having played 94 balls en route to his 35-run knock before being dismissed chasing a wide-ish delivery from Lungi Ngidi.
With the dismissal, Kohli's career batting average fell for the 14th consecutive time, a streak that began exactly on the day he scored his last international century, on November 23 of 2019, when he had notched up a match-winning 136 against Bangladesh in the historic Pink Ball Test in Kolkata. Since then, Kohli's average has dropped from 54.97 to 50.34, the lowest he has registered since November 2017.
This streak of 14 innings is the most by an Indian batsman in Test cricket, with fellow teammate Ajinkya Rahane standing behind him with 13 such innings, which incidentally started after his marvellous century in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne last year.
Cheteshwar Pujara's 2014 streak of 11 innings stands third and Dravid's streak of 10 such innings between 2007 and 2008 stands fourth on the list.
The dismissal also extended Kohli's century drought to 768 days as the Indian skipper recorded second consecutive year without an international century.
Since his 136 at the Eden Gardens, Kohli has played 14 Tests, scoring 652 runs at 26.08 with fice half-centuries and 15 ODIs, where he scored 649 runs at 43.26 with eight fifties. He also featured in 23 T02I matches where he managed 777 runs with seven half-centuries.