Virat Kohli's downfall against spin continues

The stories of Virat Kohli's comeback have continued since he hit his first century in three years against Afghanistan in last year's Asia Cup in Dubai. He took his form to the T20 World Cup, held a month later in Australia, and finished as the highest run-getter in the tournament.

As India dropped out of the tournament, the focus shifted to this year's ODI World Cup, which will be held in October. Kohli followed suit in the ODI format, breaking his ODI century drought as well, scoring three centuries in four matches against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

There is, however, another drought that has not yet ended, which has been his century drought in the Test format. He last scored a Test century against Bangladesh more than three years ago at Eden Gardens.

The drought has mainly continued due to his recent struggles against spin, which has been his undoing. Although these struggles against spin have made small appearances in the limited overs format, they have been at their most prevalent in the Test format.

Virat Kohli had a terrible year in Test cricket in 2022 which seems to have continued into this year as well. While his trials against spin are well documented, he added another chapter to the story by falling to debutant Todd Murphy, first ball after lunch.

Kohli's poor form in Test Matches

Kohli started 2022 positively, playing a gritty knock of 79 against South Africa at Cape Town, as he single-handedly took India to a competitive first-innings total. However, that was the last innings of note and he has been unable to recreate the kind of run-scoring in his test knocks since.

Across 13 innings since the start of 2022, he has scored 277 runs at a poor average of 23.08. Moreover, his failings against spin have become more prevalent as he has been dismissed 6 times to spinners.

The numbers have become even more worrying considering that he hasn’t scored a single fifty since that knock of 79 and has managed to cross 25 just twice. For a player who was number one in the Test rankings at the start of 2021, such a fall has been shocking, to say the least.

Another trend that has emerged has been his struggle to rotate the strike at the crease in the longest format. As spinners have looked to exploit his weaknesses, he has been unable to go to the other end and has hence been a victim of relentless pressure.

Virat Kohli has been dismissed for a duck 3 times to spinners in Test Cricket since 2021.

Struggle against spin

Kohli was hailed as a great player of spin. His list of majestic innings played on turning tracks is endless. As the fans would enthusiastically say, Kohli was having spinners for breakfast. However, all that has changed since his return to cricket after the Covid lockdown in 2020.

His numbers changed dramatically after the covid-induced break, and his struggles first came to light in the 2020 IPL held in the UAE. He was unable to score freely against the tweakers, getting tied up at the crease, and hence fared a poor tournament according to his standards.

This weakness sneaked into his Test game as well as his numbers started going down a downward path after the start of the home series against England in early 2021.

In the home series against Sri Lanka last year, he was dismissed by spinners in all three innings he played and a small pattern began to emerge in these dismissals.

The pattern became clearer in the Test series against Bangladesh, where he scored only 45 runs in 4 innings and was dismissed by spinners twice. Kohli was not able to read the length of the spinners correctly.

In his last 5 dismissals against spin in Test matches, he has been dismissed lbw thrice. In all three instances, he went on the back foot to play a delivery that was full and snuck under his bat.

Moreover, he was caught in the short-leg against Mehidy Hasan in his last innings at Mirpur when he stretched forward to a delivery that was too short of length and took his glove to the short-leg fielder.

This inability to read the lengths against spinners has become worrisome for a batter like Kohli considering he does not play sweep shots and does not venture down the pitch to take the bowlers off their lengths.

Hence, the bowlers have had the opportunity to bowl at him without having pressure put back on them and have been highly successful against him.

Kohli's often exaggerated reactions to his dismissals against spin gives an impression of the ball being unplayable, though it has often been a case of him misreading the length

How does Kohli make a comeback?

Kohli's weakness in not being able to read the spinner's length has become much more perplexing considering the presence of Rahul Dravid as coach in the team. Back in the day, Dravid was one of the best batters against spin and he would probably have assessed his weakness. But no advice, if any, has worked for Kohli so far.

In the recently concluded ODI series against New Zealand, this pattern was on full display from Kohli as he was dismissed in two consecutive matches by Mitchell Santner for single-digit scores.

Looking at his failings, his long-time mentor and former Indian coach Ravi Shastri also advised the stalwart batter to skip the final ODI of the New Zealand series and participate in the Ranji competition.

When somebody looks at Steve Smith or Joe Root, one very obvious thing comes to the front, which is their will to succeed in Test cricket. Both have shown their willingness to participate in first-class tournaments whenever their form has tapered in the longest format.

For Kohli, who has been an ambassador of red-ball cricket, such willingness to play Ranji or even County tournaments has oddly been missing.

Cheteshwar Pujara, another mainstay of the Indian batting order, went through the grind of County cricket after being dropped in the home series against Sri Lanka last year. He had one of the best runs as an overseas batter in the County Circuit, scoring 1094 runs for Sussex in just eight innings.

The newfound confidence from such a path-breaking stint was visible during his next Test assignment against Bangladesh, where he scored 90 in the first innings of the first Test and followed it up with a 100 in the second innings, his first century in almost four years.

It does seem like a matter of time before Kohli will have to go through the grind of first-class cricket considering his prolonged poor form in the longest format may lead to his axing from the Test squad, which in hindsight, may not be such a bad thing for him.

However, as we have seen recently, you can write off a great player at your own risk. Just when one thought his days in cricket were over, he made one of the best comebacks in T20 cricket during the Asia Cup, leading to that epic knock in Melbourne against Pakistan. He then followed it up with an impressive comeback in the ODI format as well.

A big knock from him in this edition of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy cannot be written off, although with his struggles against spin getting worse and with the request of Indian team management to prepare rank turners, the odds of playing a big knock do seem to be low.

Trust this series to have plenty of action and surprises.