In middle of a horrendous form, Indian skipper, Virat Kohli signed off his New Zealand tour with another poor outing with the bat and it become the virat kohli’s worst series outside of India.
Virat Kohli, who was caught plumb by Tim Southee in the first inning of the final test was dismissed in an identical manner by Colin de Grandhomme for 14, bringing an end to a nightmarish tour for the ace batsman.
Virat Kohli was completely out of touch on this tour and could only manage 218 runs across formats which is his worst performance on a tour where he has played all three versions of the game.
New Zealand executed their plans to perfection
New Zealand were spot on with their tactics against Virat Kohli. They did proper research about Kohli’s weaknesses and reaped benefits by executing their plans to perfection.
Post the 2014 tour of England, Kohli’s issues with deliveries outside the off stump, especially in conditions where the ball is jagging of the pitch, is world known.
Every team Kohli plays against looks to exploit this flaw and have somewhat got the better of the great batsman. In the first test of the series, Kohli was out twice poking at deliveries outside the off stump.
In the final test too, New Zealand were disciplined with their lines to Virat and got him caught on the crease in both innings. In the white ball formats, New Zealand dried up the boundaries and forced Kohli to play a false shot which led to his downfall.
Second worst Test series as a batsman for Kohli
This is Kohli’s worst performance in terms of average in an overseas Test series with two or more matches.
Virat Kohli has scores of 2, 19, 3, 14 in this series an averages a mere 9.50, worse than his disastrous tour to England where he managed 134 runs in 10 innings at an average of 13.40.
This is also his second worst performance overall, just behind the series vs Australia in 2017 where he averaged 9.20 in the three tests, scoring only 46 runs in 5 innings.
Kohli looks tired- Need rest
Barring a few matches or some low profile series, Kohli has been playing non-stop cricket across formats for few years now and looks tires, someone who desperately needs some time off the game. You can feel the fatigue in his game, when he’s batting. Â
The ball is not hitting the sweet spot of the bat, the timing isn’t there, sometimes it feels he’s to trying too hard to score runs which is rare for a batsman of the calibre of Virat Kohli. He’s a batsman who is temperamentally very strong and is ready to fight it out till the final ball.
On his last tour to England in 2018, Kohli was well aware off his issues with deliveries outside the off stump thus left almost every delivery that was thrown on that channel of uncertainty.
His grit and determination meant that he overcame the horrors of 2014 by emerging as the leading run scorer of the series with 593 Â runs to his name.
This series though, he just looked like getting out any time. He poked at deliveries he shouldn’t have played, missed straight deliveries, it was just very uncharacteristic Kohli. Â
If India want the best out of Virat  on important tours such as the one to Australia later this year, they need to give him sometime off to get his mind in place.
Jamieson gets the better of Kohli
India straight away plays South Africa at home in a 3 match ODI series post the second Test. Kohli will also feature in the upcoming Indian Premier League starting March 29.
His poor show meant that he’s now lost his No 1 ranking to his Australian counterpart, Steven Smith.
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