When was the last time Virat Kohli was dismissed for a duck in ODI cricket?
Star batter Virat Kohli was dismissed for a nine-ball duck in India's highly-anticipated clash against England in Lucknow on Sunday, October 29.
It was Kohli's first-ever duck in his glittering ODI World Cup career, where he has averaged an impressive 53.23 with three centuries and nine half-centuries.
However, the more shocking revelation was it was his first time being dismissed for no score since early last year. In the final game of the three-match ODI series at home in February 2022, the 34-year-old fell for a two-ball duck off the bowling of Alzarri Joseph.
Fortunately for Team India, Virat Kohli's rare dismal outing had no bearing on the game, which they comfortably won 96 runs. Ironically, that was three innings after he had scored another duck against South Africa.
Yet, since the West Indies outing, Virat Kohli had gone 26 ODI innings from being dismissed without scoring until today.
The champion batter was coming off a century and a 95 before being kept quiet off his first eight deliveries, leading to a rush of blood. Kohli used his feet to try and get off the mark and perished by gifting a simple catch to Ben Stokes at mid-off.
Nevertheless, Kohli is still the fifth leading scorer in the World Cup with 354 runs at an average of 88.50.
Team India rocked early with the bat against England
Team India entered the clash against England full of confidence, having won their opening five games of the 2023 World Cup. Meanwhile, England have endured a dismal tournament, losing all but one of their five games to find themselves on the brink of elimination.
Jos Buttler won the toss on a dry Lucknow wicket and asked India to bat first. Much to the English pacers' delight, the surface offered plenty of assistance, and the opening bowlers - Chris Woakes and David Willey took full advantage.
Woakes cleaned up Shubman Gill with a nip-backer, following which Willey dismissed Virat Kohli for his first World Cup duck.
The impressive Woakes bowled an extended spell and removed Shreyas Iyer with a short-of-length delivery.
Despite winning three of their last four ODI games against England, The Men in Blue are in deep trouble for the first time in the World Cup. It is also the first instance of the side batting first after winning all five of their previous outings in a run chase.
At the first drinks break of the match, India are struggling at 55/3 in 16 overs, with skipper Rohit Sharma holding one end up on 37* off 50 and KL Rahul new to the crease on five.