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Virat Kohli's post-2020 slump: A period that pushed him down in the GOAT race
The big slump from 2020 onwards pushed Virat Kohli down to the bottom in the Fab four, with the likes of Root, Williamson and Smith racing ahead of him.
Virat Kohli has made a shocking decision to bid adieu to Test cricket ahead of the five-match series in England. The batting maestro decided to pave the way for the young generations to take over the responsibility in the next World Test Championship Cycle, starting with the England tour.
The batting superstar finished his illustrious career as one of the best in the past decade, but he had a chance to become the undisputed GOAT of the generation. However, things didn't go as planned for him in the past few years, especially during the 2020-2022 period, when almost everything fell apart for him in red-ball cricket.
The 36-year-old witnessed a massive slump during the COVID-19 pandemic, when cricket went behind closed doors. After ruling the red-ball cricket for about half a decade from 2014 to 2019, Kohli's weaknesses outside the off-stump were constantly exploited by the opposition, and he is yet to find a solution for that.
During the 2014 to 2019 period, Kohli slammed 5695 runs at an astonishing average of 58.71 to keep toes to toes with Steve Smith in the race for the best red-ball batters amongst the Fab Four. However, the big slump from 2020 onwards pushed him down to the bottom in the Fab four with the likes of Joe Root, Kane Williamson racing ahead while Smith maintained his consistency.
It all started with the New Zealand tour in early 2020, India's last Test series before the COVID-19 pandemic. The Asian giants succumbed on the green pitch, and their in-form skipper Kohli also wasn't able to help them much. In the two Tests, Kohli managed just 38 runs as India suffered a whitewash.
After the COVID-19 break, India travelled to Australia for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, where Kohli had decided to play only the opening Test. He had to return to India for the birth of his first child. In the series opener, Kohli started strong with a 74-run knock in the pink-ball clash at Adelaide with a 74-run knock in the first innings. The miscommunication between him and Ajinkya Rahane stopped him from scoring a century. Meanwhile, the drastic turn of events unfolded in the second innings where Kohli scored four and India were bundled out for 36 and were humiliated by the hosts to trail 0-1 behind. However, after Kohli left the tour, India bounced back to clinch the series 2-1 under Rahane's leadership.
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Things just went downhill for Kohli, the batter. After that, he struggled to get going. The century wait kept getting extended with every match, with him failing to convert the good starts and half-centuries into big scores.
He did hit six half-centuries in the 20 Tests during the low phase of his career, but a triple-digit score eluded him. The batting maestro's average dropped drastically during this period, as he scored just 917 runs at 26.20. From struggles against spin to his tendency of poking balls in the fourth-fifth stump channel, everything made Kohli agitated as he tried hard to get over in few of his innings including a 79 against South Africa in Capetown where he fought a lone battle in his last match as Test skipper but the century drought kept extending.
After a wait of 1205 days, he finally ended the drought by smashing a century against Australia in Ahmedabad. He made full use of the batting-friendly conditions at Narendra Modi Stadium to score a sublime 186. While many thought of hoping the prime Kohli back, but unfortunately it didn't, as since 2023, he has hit just three centuries. The average remained below 40 (35.83) as he managed to score 1111 runs in the last 19 matches.
Kohli’s decline in red-ball cricket was glaring. His persistent vulnerability outside the off-stump – frequently edging deliveries to the slip cordon or wicketkeeper – proved to be his undoing, especially during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. This technical flaw, which has plagued him for the past four years, has now become a major concern for Team India, and as a result, he decided to bid adieu to the format which he cherished the most in the most abrupt way.
