How long a rope can India afford to give struggling Virat Kohli in Test cricket?

The writing is on the wall for Virat Kohli, and it has been for some time. Runs, the only currency with which batters are measured, have said goodbye to him against the swinging red ball, and his feet seem to have vowed not to move laterally in order to get his head closer and on top of the deliveries he is facing.

At the Sydney Cricket Ground, a match that will go down in history for being witness to a Test captain being asked to step aside due to his poor form with the bat, Kohli's failure with the bat made the headlines yet again. This time, Scott Boland was his benefactor, and the line outside off his adversary yet again.

The 36-year-old poked at a good length delivery on the fifth stump with hard hands and managed to nick it straight to Beau Webster at third slip, walking off the ground surrounded by disgruntled Indian supporters for a hard-fought 17 off 69 deliveries. The cricketing gods, who had been so kind to him all his career, have now turned their hands away, almost as if in derision.

The usual commentary has been that almost anyone could get Kohli out in this series by bowling outside off. His struggles Down Under are reminiscent of the way the godlike Rahul Dravid - although more solid than the former in defense and more heartwarming in offense - did in his final tour of Australia in 2011-12.

The same had been true for Dravid; a man known historically for his rock-sold ability to get behind the line of the ball and his head on top at all times was embarrassed beyond measure in 2011-12 when he was bowled in six out of the eight occasions that he walked out to bat.

Father Time has come calling for Kohli

Virat Kohli of India reacts to being dismissed during day one of the Fifth Men's Test Match in the series between Australia and India at Sydney Cricket Ground on January 03, 2025 in Sydney, Australia.

Does this mean that Father Time has come calling for Kohli? How tragic would it be, how unpoetic, how unfortunate, that the batter slated to beat Sachin Tendulkar someday, the man expected to be the answer to all of India's batting hopes should end with less than 10,000 Test runs to his credit? 9,224 - oh, how painfully less they may seem to him - is all he has at the moment.

While the death knell may not be far away, the actual question remains as to how long a rope the management can afford to give him. We know that his numbers are poorer than they have ever been, and we also know that the last time he scored 1,000 runs in a calendar year in this format was way back in 2018.

Barring 2023, which was a fruitful year of sorts, Kohli's average barely crossed the 25-run mark in 2021 and 2022, and fell under it in 2020 and 2024. These are not the numbers that one expects of a batter competing alongside the likes of Joe Root, Kane Williamson and Steven Smith in a modern-era top four.

Kohli was supposed to be India's answer to every evil in the world, especially in the void that was created by Sachin Tendulkar's much-delayed retirement in 2013. What went wrong for the white-ball genius then? It has to be said that his performance in the shorter formats has not suffered as much as they have here.

While he has retired from T20Is, he continues to go strong in ODIs, having amassed 13,906 runs at a statesmanlike average of 58.18, and will be one of the biggest factors leading India's assault at the ICC Champions Trophy in February which they had last won under MS Dhoni's captaincy in 2013.

Kohli can take the graceful way out

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - JANUARY 03: Steve Smith of Australia clebrates catching out Virat Kohli of India off a delivery by team mate Scott Boland of Australia prior to a third umpire decision review as not out during day one of the Fifth Men's Test Match in the series between Australia and India at Sydney Cricket Ground on January 03, 2025 in Sydney, Australia.

The reason, quite simply, is that Kohli's technical deficiencies have been found out by bowlers, and they have been exploited ruthlessly. We saw glimmers of this in India's tour of England in 2014, when James Anderson brought the then-25-year-old to his knees with the ball swinging away.

Kohli managed to overcome his technical flaws - that of poking at balls outside off with hard hands and not getting his head on top of the line - by sheer mental fortitude, much like Sachin Tendulkar's epic 241 in the 2004 SCG Test in which he completely eliminated the cover drive which was causing him trouble.

That, however, requires immense discipline, and while Kohli in his 20s was able to stick to his gameplan of not pushing at deliveries outside of his body, he seems to have fallen prey to poor decision-making of late. A lot of this can be attributed to the changes one's body makes as one grows older. One is hardly as stringent with oneself as one ages.

Batters, meanwhile, are often credited with gaining more maturity as they grow older, and by no means does this correspondent enjoy writing obituaries, least of all of a man who has almost single-handedly carried Indian batting's hopes and expectations on his shoulders throughout his career.

However, Kohli's time with red-ball cricket seems to have come to an end, with not even a match-winning century in the second innings of the Perth Test able to save him from this unfortunate fall from grace. That would be an aberration that the master ekes out of his guts in a last-ditch battle to save this failing love, and not the result of his temperament having improved.

It is said that Dravid - who existed under his more hallowed teammate Tendulkar throughout his career - was so embarrassed at having been bowled six times in Australia in 2011-12 that he could not carry on and felt that the time had come to bring his chapter to a close.

Recognizing that his feet were not moving as well and his eyes were not seeing the ball as sharply, Dravid responded with an act of timeless steel and dignity. Kohli too was a part of that tour - perhaps he would have learnt a thing or two from another man who carried Indian batting's hopes and expectations on his shoulders.