How long before India thinks about dropping Virat Kohli from the Test team?
Virat Kohli will head to the second Test in Delhi after scoring 12 runs in the first innings of the first Test against Australia in Nagpur. He appeared to be in a good knick during his brief spell in the middle.
Kohli was dismissed by Australia's debut spinner Todd Murphy on the first ball after lunch. The manner of dismissal was rather poor as Kohli was caught behind beyond his leg stump.
Going into the second Test, King Kohli's red-ball form will continue to worry India's think tank. He has been imperious of late in the shorter formats of the game but Kohli continues to struggle in Test cricket.
Rohit Sharma-led India will need a bigger contribution from Kohli if they want to win more matches in the Border-Gavaskar trophy and qualify for the World Test Championship final.
Coming to Virat's overall record, the Delhi-born batter has secured 8131 runs in 105 Tests for India, which includes 27 tons and 28 half-centuries. He is considered India's greatest batter of the era but his ranking of 16th in Test cricket fails to back that claim.
Virat Kohli's average numbers in Test cricket of late do not bode well for his future
Kohli's Test average peaked after his 84th Test when it read 54.97. The current average is only 48.7. His last Test century came against Bangladesh at the Eden Gardens in November 2019. Since then, he has played 37 innings, scoring 929 runs, averaging just under 26.
12, 1, 24, 19*, 1, 20, 11, 13, 23, 45, 29, 79, 18, 35, 36 - these are the scores of the former Indian captain in the last 15 innings, averaging 26.14. These are mediocre numbers for any batter, let alone for a man like Kohli. It seems his best Test days might be beyond him now. At 34, Kohli is also no longer a young player and India needs to manage his workload.
With the batter in imperious form in limited-overs cricket, maybe they should switch his focus to white-ball cricket and allow a new man to take his place in Test cricket.
While players like Sarfaraz Khan are waiting for a chance in the starting XI, if Virat's willow fails to contribute big in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar trophy, it might be impossible for the management to ignore these mediocre stats and eventually drop him from the team at the end of this series.