Senior Team India batter Virat Kohli had a lackluster return to red-ball cricket in the first Test against Bangladesh at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, which concluded on September 22. This was his first Test appearance since January 2024, as he had missed the home series against England due to the birth of his second child. The 35-year-old scored just 6 and 17 in his innings.
The right-handed batsman made a loose drive outside off, away from his body in the first innings. He was caught behind off the bowling of Hasan Mahmud. In the second essay of the innings, the former Indian captain was pinned lbw trying to flick off-spinner Mehidy Hasan Miraz. Kohli could have got away with it had he taken the review since he had hit the ball before being given out, but he chose not to take the risk.
The experienced batter’s two back-to-back failures against Bangladesh in Chepauk came after a poor white-ball tour of Sri Lanka. During a three-match one-day series at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, Kohli scored 24, 14 and 20 respectively. To note, all three times he was dismissed bowled out by spin, in all three games.
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To sum up, the Indian batsman’s performance in international cricket this year has been quite woeful, to say the least. He has played 15 matches (17 innings) in all the three formats and has only managed to score 319 runs at a horrid average of 18.76, including just one fifty.
A breakdown of Virat Kohli’s performance in international cricket for 2024 by format
Kohli has played two Test matches in the year 2024, scoring as many as 81 runs with an average of 20.25. The ex-captain of India made 46 and 12 runs in the New Year Test against South Africa held in Cape Town in the month of January 2024. As noted before, the batsman was out for 6 and 17 runs respectively at Chepauk while playing against Bangladesh.
This year, in the 35 year old cricketer has already played three odies and scored a total of 58 runs at an average of 19.33 with a strike rate of 84.05. All these three matches were played on the Sri Lankan tour. In the three innings played by Kohli, he did score in double figures but turned out to be incapable in making those figure into significant scores.
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A right-handed batsman participated in a total of 10 T20 matches in the year 2024, following which he decided to retire from this format of the game after the World Cup. His batting consisted of 10 innings in which he racked 180 runs at a batting average of 18 and a strike rate of 119.20.
Kohli registered just a single fifty plus score, but that one score, which came in the 2024 T20 World Cup final versus South Africa held in Barbados, was as precious as gold. Scoring 76 off 59 balls Kohli led the Men in Blue clinching the title by 7 runs.
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