After missing the five-match Test series against England earlier this year due to the birth of his second child, Virat Kohli was back in India’s playing XI on Thursday (September 19) for the ongoing first Test of the two-match series against Bangladesh, but in his comeback match, the right-handed batter failed to fire with the bat and got out after making six runs from as many balls. He was caught behind by Litton Das on the second ball of the 10th over, which was bowled by Hasan Mahmud.
Virat’s flop show with the bat in the first innings shifts the attention back to his poor run for India in internationals played this year. Apart from scoring a 59-ball-76 in the T20 World Cup final against South Africa, Kohli has not managed to impress with his batting in 2024. In 15 matches played so far across formats, he has only scored 302 runs with an average of 18.87.
He started the new year with scores of 46 and 12 in the second Test against South Africa, which was played in Cape Town from January 3 to 4, and then scored 29 on his T20I comeback against Afghanistan in Indore on January 14. But in the third and final T20I of the bilateral series, he got out for a duck at M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
Kohli missed the England series but was available for RCB in the IPL 2024, where he finished as the leading run-scorer. After his heroics in the IPL for the Bengaluru-based franchise, Kohli was expected to dominate the show in the T20 World Cup 2024, but apart from top-scoring in the final, he was one of the biggest flops of the tournament.
The former Indian captain scored 1, 4, 0, 24, 37, 0, and 9 runs against Ireland, Pakistan, the USA, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Australia, and England, respectively.
Kohli, who announced his retirement from the shortest format of the game after India’s win in the T20 World Cup final, played three ODIs against Sri Lanka as well in the first week of August but was only able to score 24, 14, and 20 runs.
Root, Williamson, and Smith’s record in 2024
In 11 matches played so far in 2024, world No. 1 Test batter Root has scored 986 runs for England with an average of 54.77. He has four centuries to his name, of which one was against India in Ranchi and three on English soil. Williamson, on the other hand, has amassed a total of 646 runs in 11 matches. The former New Zealand captain scored three centuries in four innings of two Tests played against South Africa in February.
Australia’s Steve Smith has also played 11 matches for Australia across formats and has scored 318 runs. His batting average is 31.80, and like Kohli, he has also not scored a century.
Smith and Kohli will be up against each other in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy later this year, and the below-par performances so far in 2024 by both of them are a cause for concern.
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