T20I average of Virat Kohli drops below 50: Key stats
Virat Kohli was India's joint-top-scorer with Ravindra Jadeja in the Asia Cup match against Pakistan on Sunday. He slammed a 34-ball 35 as India chased 148 in the final over. However, the match saw Kohli's T20I average drop below 50. Kohli, who featured in his 100th T20I, continues to his bid to score his maiden international century in nearly three years.
Why does this story matter?
The run-drought of Kohli, arguably the greatest batter of the contemporary era, does not seem to end. Earlier this year, he stepped down as Team India's Test captain. The Indian batter was later replaced by Rohit Sharma as captain in all three formats. Kohli, the owner of over 23,000 international runs and a plethora of records, has been struggling to attain consistency.
Kohli now averages 49.89 in T20I cricket
Before the Asia Cup game against Pakistan, Kohli had an average of 50.12 in T20I cricket. His T20I average has now dropped to 49.89. Kohli is one of only four players to have scored over 3,000 runs in the shortest format. In terms of T20I runs, Kohli (3,343) is behind Rohit Sharma (3,499) and Martin Guptill (3497).
In March, Kohli's Test average drops below 50
In March this year, Kohli's Test average dropped below the 50-mark. This happened after India won the Day/Night Test against Sri Lanka in Bengaluru. Kohli couldn't do much with the bat, having scored 23 and 13 in two innings. Before the Bengaluru Test, Kohli was the only batter with an average of over 50 in each of the three formats.
Kohli has mind-boggling numbers in ODI cricket
Kohli still averages an astronomical 57.68 in ODI cricket, the second-best among players who have featured in over 50 matches. He is only behind Pakistan's Babar Azam in this regard (59.79). Kohli is the sixth-highest run-scorer in ODI cricket, having slammed 12,344 runs from 262 matches. In 2018, Kohli broke Sachin Tendulkar's record, becoming the fastest-ever to 10,000 ODI runs (205 innings).
Over 1,000 days since Kohli's last ton
All these incredible numbers notwithstanding, Kohli has been unable to rediscover his mojo. On August 19, he completed 1,000 days without scoring a ton. The Run Machine last slammed an international century in November 2019 during the Eden Gardens Test against Bangladesh.
Kohli's number since November 2019
Since November 2019 (his last international century), Kohli has scored 2,589 runs from 69 internationals at an average of 35.46. The tally includes 24 half-centuries. Kohli has an average of less than 30 in Test cricket in this period. In the hindsight, these are decent numbers for a top-order batter. However, we are accustomed to putting Kohli's standards in perspective.
