Virat Kohli: Waiting for that Test turnaround

Fans will be delighted with his rousing batting form in white-ball cricket, but a big knock in Tests is needed for one to say with conviction that Kohli is back to his best.

Bat and pad sandwiched at the point of contact, and the ball going on to brush the outside of leg stump. As far as fine margins go, Virat Kohli’s leg-before dismissal by Australia left-arm spinner Matt Kuhnemann in the first innings of the Delhi Test is as good an example as there can be.

Virat Kohli walks back after his dismissal during the third day of the second match between India and Australia in New Delhi (AP)

A week and multiple replays later, it’s still difficult to decide whether the ball hit his pad or bat first. If umpire Nitin Menon’s on-field verdict had been ‘not out’, Kohli would most certainly have carried on batting in front of an adoring home crowd. And there would probably have been no need for this conversation.

As it turned out, he was dismissed for 44 off 84 balls, trudging back to the dressing room to the disappointment of the 20,000-plus fans who had turned up on a Saturday afternoon. Till that moment in his innings, Kohli’s footwork and clarity of thought couldn’t be faulted. Even as wickets fell at the other end, the 34-year-old moved fully forward or back to the Australian spinners, seldom allowing the ball to behave untowardly during his two-hour stay at the crease.

If the rub of the green had gone his way – a necessary ally on turning tracks – Kohli’s numbers in recent Tests would have also gained a significant boost. As it stands though, his last 22 Tests have yielded 993 runs at an average of just 26.13 with six fifties and no century.

While his long-standing century drought in international cricket was put to bed in a T20I last September – he has hit three ODI centuries too since then – he hasn’t scored a Test hundred since making 136 against Bangladesh in Kolkata in November 2019. He has shown glimpses of a return to his vintage best in coloured clothing of late, but he will know that Test runs provide that final stamp for one to say with conviction that Kohli is back to his best.

Never mind the challenges Indian batters face outside the subcontinent, the turning tracks dished out at home recently have certainly contributed to Kohli’s lean patch. Since 2020, he averages 26.07 in 14 innings in India with a top score of 72, a considerable drop from his overall home average of 48.49.

While most observers have viewed Kohli’s weakness outside off-stump against pace with a microscope, his record against spin in the last three years isn’t immune to scrutiny either. In the period from 2011 to 2019, Kohli was averaging 54.77 against off-spinners. That number is now 28.37. Given the widely accepted notion that off-spinners aren’t overly threatening against right-handed batters, it is concerning that Kohli has fallen eight times to off-spinners since 2020.

There is an even sharper decline against left-arm orthodox spinners. From an average of 110.71 against them until 2019, it has now dropped to 25.42.

It’s not to say that Kohli hasn’t contributed vital runs in this period. Against England in 2021, his 62 in the second innings of the second Test in Chennai was a tutorial on how to play spin: soft hands, decisive footwork and predominantly playing in the V. A Test earlier, he made 72 in a defeat at the same venue when no other batter could get a hang of James Anderson’s reverse swing in the fourth innings.

But when the weight of expectations goes beyond customary standards – an aspect Kohli has dealt with from the start of his career – battling half-centuries perhaps aren’t enough.

At the nets two days away from the third Test, Kohli looked in a belligerent mood against the spinners. Unlike Rohit Sharma, who was batting in the adjacent net, he seldom takes the aerial route during a match, relying on the conventional method of playing the ball along the ground to minimise the risk. But that wasn’t the case on Monday.

It’s quite a task to step out, particularly against Ravindra Jadeja due to the flatter trajectory of his deliveries. Kohli though showed it can be done, shimmying down the track and opening up the off-side with some delightful inside-out drives against the left-arm spinner.

With India winning, and winning comfortably, Kohli’s form may not be a matter of concern for the time being. Regardless of how the Indian batters fare, the spinners have the Australians on a leash and will back themselves to skittle out the visitors cheaply again. But beyond this series, runs from Kohli's bat are critical for India to continue succeeding in the five-day game. For instance, his performance in the World Test Championship final at the Oval in England in June, provided India make it, is likely to have a big say on its outcome.

With two Tests remaining in this series though, Kohli will be eager to stamp his authority well before that and add further heft to a seemingly invincible unit at home.