“Virat Kohli during the India vs Aus 4th Test match at Narendra Modi Stadium on 09 March 2023” by Prime Minister’s Office is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
If Sachin Tendulkar dominated the 1990s and Ricky Ponting bossed the 2000s, then Virat Kohli made the 2010s all his very own. A born winner hailing from humble beginnings in Delhi, Kohli pioneered the art of being a new-age chaser in the white-ball formats. His stature and self-assurance continue to grow almost 20 years on from his international debut and, through batting genius alone, he has firmly placed India as the face of limited-overs cricket. However, his legacy in the Test arena remains unclear. As captain, Kohli’s custodianship of Test cricket at an uncertain time for the format earned the respect of the old guard, almost single-handedly resuscitating red-ball cricket and giving it meaning to those outside of Australia and England. He incited a fundamental shift in attitude that saw India stand toe-to-toe with the big bad bullies of the game. Despite this, his own performances with the bat have lacked similar conviction and consistency. A now-5-year batting slump marked by a conspicuous technical flaw outside the off stump leaves him vulnerable in the twilight of his career
Being the poster child of Indian cricket is no easy task. In a nation that elevates its finest to deities, once you reach stardom there is no going back.
First there was the man that proved anything was possible, Kapil Dev. Then came Sachin Tendulkar, a prodigy the likes of which we may never see again. Not long after, there was the talismanic Mahendra Singh Dhoni, India’s serial champion.
Players destined for this mantle are not always obvious. Nor do they put themselves forward for candidacy. Each successor is spiritually chosen when the time is right.
When a young Virat Kohli debuted on 18 August 2008 against Sri Lanka at Dambulla in a One-Day International (ODI), no-one predicted what was written in the stars for him.
Turning out as an opener with teammate-now-coach, Gautam Gambhir, he was dismissed for 12 against the medium pace of Nuwan Kulasekara and Sri Lanka cruised to a breezy 8-wicket win with 91 balls remaining.
Nothing about this match hinted at the legacy young Kohli would one day create for himself; but if there was one man who had an inkling, it would have been Virat himself.
As the years rolled on, the real Virat Kohli began to introduce himself to the world: ambitious, tenacious, emotional, gladiatorial and, at times, impetuous. But above all, exceptional.
Between 2010 and 2019 no cricketer reached the heights he did, aptly earning him the moniker ‘King Kohli’. Whether it was Test cricket, ODIs or Twenty20s (T20), Kohli dominated in a way no other batter has in the history of the game across formats, amassing 20,960 runs at an average of 57.58. In doing so, he eclipsed the returns of Ricky Ponting in the 2000s (18,962) and Sachin Tendulkar in the 1990s (14,197).
In Test cricket, Kohli racked up 7202 runs at an average of 54.97, behind only Sir Alastair Cook and Joe Root.
But greatness, however grand, tapers to mediocrity with time. The prelude to this inevitable reality often comes when the wells storing cricket’s intangible qualities – hunger, focus and reflexes – begin to run dry.
During his time of unparalleled dominance, no mountain proved too big to move for ‘King Kohli’. In the rare instance he was met with a setback he would regroup and strike back harder, a trait that would serve as both an asset in his younger years but a handicap later on.
Kohli’s Test returns over the last 5 years, exacerbated by a glaring technical shortcoming, are inescapable at this point. Whichever way you cut it, there is now evidence to suggest he is a mere mortal after all.
This begs the question, ‘why is Virat Kohli struggling in Test cricket?’
Live by the sword, die by the sword
To say Virat Kohli goes full throttle on the field would be selling short his efforts.
Those who have followed his career closely know once he crosses the boundary line, it is no longer the humble, quiet and even sensitive Virat his closest friends or wife, Bollywood megastar Anushka Sharma, recognise.
Instead, the man that fronts up is someone who, by design, is incapable of taking a backward step no matter the situation.
Described as possessing an ‘Australian mentality’ by ex-pace ace Brett Lee, Kohli’s hunger for hostility has shaped his cricketing career – not dissimilar from the generational Australian teams of the early 2000s. What’s more, to receive as high an honour from a member of the fabled Australian dynasty, in which Lee featured prominently, is no mean feat.
His aggression, feistiness and passion for cricket – and India – changed the nation from being the antithesis of everything Kohli embodies to a team that, to this day, plays in his image.
And in his youthful zeal, Kohli was irrepressible; just like his long-time captain, MS Dhoni, most things he touched turned to gold. But now long in the tooth, the same good fortune which displayed such loyalty to him throughout the 2010s has started to elude him – particularly in Test cricket.
Virat Kohli’s legacy in the white-ball game, particularly ODIs, is undisputed
“Virat Kohli (Ind vs NZ)” by Times Of India is licensed under CC BY 3.0
As a player begins their final chapter, Father Time and Lady Luck often conspire against them
Whether it is a sudden career-ending injury, a tactical team decision to invest in the future, or simply an extended form rut, every athlete has an expiry date.
Entering this phase is never easy. Ever so rarely, a player is given the gift of walking away on his or her own terms. Mostly, however, the final moments are ugly.
The fans see a hero slowly begin to fall. A nation sees one of their own succumb to the sport they once conquered. And with a supernova, a star that shone so brightly for so long explodes, leaving remnants of a bright career that once was.
Regrettably, Virat Kohli currently faces this dire fate; at least, in the red-ball game. Equally, he faces a chance at redemption.
2014: The first sightings of Kohli’s ‘corridor of horrors’
Virat Kohli’s struggles in Test cricket first surfaced on the 2014 tour of England where the moving Dukes ball drew focus to a flimsy batting technique and an insistence to feel bat on ball.
Across 10 innings, he nicked off 7 times – 4 of them against James Anderson – finishing the series with a best score of 39 at an average of 13.40.
His recurring dalliance with balls on the 4th– and 5th-stump line, always a handicap in English conditions, caught the attention of bowlers around the world. Being his first major setback in the 5-day game at the time, everyone was confident he would bounce back.
The wounds inflicted on the catastrophic tour of England were soothed not long after when Kohli ventured Down Under for the 2014/2015 Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT). The alchemy of hard pitches, true bounce and minimal lateral movement courtesy of the Kookaburra ball transformed the red ball – his greatest enemy mere months ago – into the perfect partner for Kohli.
With conditions more in tune with his front-foot, in-your-face methods, the series saw India’s Number 4 rack up tons at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the Sydney Cricket Ground and twin tons at the Adelaide Oval.
On the surface, all was in order again. But in reality, the troubles of England were swept under the rug and the ‘corridor of uncertainty’ would soon become his ‘corridor of horrors’.
2015-2019: Coronation of ‘King Kohli’ and a reign like no other
Seldom has a single player dominated cricket, in all its incarnations, the way Virat Kohli did in the 2010s:
- ICC Men’s Cricketer of the Decade (2010-2019)
- ICC Men’s Cricketer of the Year/Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy (2017, 2018)
- ICC Men’s Test Cricketer of the Year (2018)
- ICC Men’s ODI Cricketer of the Decade (2010-2019)
- ICC Men’s ODI Cricketer of the Year (2012, 2017, 2018)
- ICC Men’s Test Team of the Decade (2010-2019; Number 4 and captain)
- ICC Men’s ODI Team of the Decade (2010-2019; Number 3)
- ICC Men’s T20 International Team of the Decade (2010-2019; Number 4)
- Most 100s in Men’s Tests (27)
- Most 100s in Men’s ODIs (42)
In the white-ball format, he was unchallenged. In the red-ball arena, the only man that kept Kohli honest across conditions was Australia’s Steven Smith – a man now described by many as ‘the best since Bradman’.
The fires of 2014 in England and Australia fuelled a redemption arc which finally saw Sachin Tendulkar’s heir apparent take his throne as India’s newest batting demigod. For a period of 5 years between 2015 and 2019 ‘King Kohli’, averaging 62.15 from 52 Tests, reigned supreme.
He averaged over 51 against Bangladesh, England, New Zealand, South Africa, Sri Lanka and the West Indies in Test cricket (Figure 1A). Across countries, he averaged over 43 in 6 (including in South Africa, Sri Lanka and the West Indies) and over 52 in Australia, England and India (Figure 1B).
Figure 1. Virat Kohli’s Test averages against and in countries between 1 January 2015 and 31 December 2019
Data sourced from ESPN Cricinfo
Notably, Kohli kept his off-side temptations at bay. In the event he was lured back into old habits, Lady Luck was there to bail him out.
2020 onwards: A monumental run drought starts and familiar flaws resurface, but glimpses of his greatness remain
For a full decade, Kohli’s unrivalled peak across all formats left the competition snapping at his heels for 2nd place. Nonetheless, while the runs flowed his past technical demons lurked in the background.
Despite averaging 59.30 for the series on the return Test tour of England in 2018, which included a breakthrough 149 at Edgbaston followed by a 97 and 103 at Nottingham, Kohli’s outside edge still demonstrated an inclination to flirt with balls in the 4th– and 5th-stump channel from time to time. On that tour, however, good fortune favoured him as the ball either missed the outside edge altogether or found gaps through the gully and point regions.
Since 2020, no such luck has come to his rescue with his Test averages nose-diving across most oppositions and venues (Figure 2A and Figure 2B).
Figure 2. Virat Kohli’s Test averages against and in countries between 1 January 2020 and 31 January 2025
Data sourced from ESPN Cricinfo
Worse, the technical demons of 2014 have revisited with a vengeance. Across 5 Tests in the 2024/2025 BGT, 8 dismissals came through his habitual poke outside the off stump; the last time such a repetitive nature of dismissal was observed was on the ill-fated tour of England in 2014.
Glimpses of the giant that ruled the Test game a decade prior are now few and far between. But the few glimpses we have seen – 100* at Perth in 2024, 79 at Cape Town in 2022 and 76 at Centurion in 2023 – suggest there is still fight left in India’s Number 4.
Averaging 30.72 from 39 Tests since the beginning of the decade paints a bleak picture. These diminishing returns across the board have left us all asking the same question: ‘Why is Virat Kohli struggling in Test cricket…again?’
Simplicity matched with stubbornness underpinned prime Kohli’s success in the 2010s, but do those same qualities provide the answer to the question ‘why is Virat Kohli struggling in Test cricket in the 2020s?’
At his best, Kohli’s batting game is built on a couple of fundamental traits: doing the simple things right and doing the simple things right consistently.
As prolific as he is, Kohli has never been an AB de Villiers or Brian Lara – nor has he sought to be. When on song his array of shots are limited, restricted to a solid punch down the ground or through the off side, a trusty flick off his pads when the bowlers stray too straight and a pull shot when the fast bowlers look to go upstairs.
What has made Kohli such a force across formats is the simplicity with which he approaches his batting; he knows his strengths and what works for him. And in his prime a simple technical set-up was coupled with a self-confidence and unappeasable desire to ‘score first, defend second’ – a recipe for prolonged success at the elite level.
Australia’s Ricky Ponting personified this, so too did the West Indies’ Sir Vivian Richards.
But in Kohli’s later years, the skills which once served as formidable weapons and the stubbornness that propelled him to dizzying heights, appear self-destructive. Familiar flaws compounded by tougher batting wickets – home and away – have left Kohli with the toughest of tests in his war to reclaim his throne.
The overall numbers behind Kohli’s outside-off nightmare
Kohli’s ‘corridor of horrors’, which many hoped was a blip in 2014, is no longer a blemish. Captains now see Kohli walk out in the whites and unabashedly order their bowlers to settle in for ball after ball, over after over and spell after spell on the 4th– and 5th-stump line, unperturbed by any perceived lack of bowling variation.
In a rinse-and-repeat strategy, bowlers now count on Kohli pushing forward and driving away from his body. First it was Anderson and, most recently, Australia’s Scott Boland who boldly stated during the 2024/2025 BGT: ‘We’ve got pretty set plans on how we want to bowl to him. He sort of feels like he leaves a lot and then he wants to play the ball once he gets in. So once he gets in, we just want to switch our lines a little bit to fifth stump and it’s working at the moment.’
And this is for good reason. A breakdown of his modes of dismissal throughout his Test career reveals the extent of his troubles (Figure 3).
Figure 3. Modes of dismissal for Virat Kohli in Test cricket up until 15 October 2024
The red outline indicates the high frequency of the ‘caught’ (including in the slip cordon) and ‘caught behind’ (by the wicket-keeper) modes of dismissal for Virat Kohli in Test cricket
Data sourced from Sportskeeda
Before the start of the 2024 home series against New Zealand, approximately two-thirds of his dismissals (n=124; 67.8%) were either ‘caught’ (n=84; 45.9%; includes the slip cordon) or ‘caught behind’ (n=40; 21.9%; includes only the wicket-keeper).
‘LBW’ (n=40; 21.9%) also featured prominently and has become a growing concern, particularly against spin at home.
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These numbers show that even before the 2024/2025 BGT started, a series that conjured a horrible sense of déjà vu amidst memories of 2014, getting caught behind the wicket was a regular occurrence.
Since 2020, he averages 14.67 against good-length and short-of-good-length balls on a line equivalent to a 3rd and 4th set of stumps. His ‘on-the-front-foot’ style of play – both figuratively and literally – is seeing him progressively falter (Figure 4).
Figure 4. Virat Kohli’s average against good-length and short-of-good-length balls on a 3rd and 4th set of stumps in Test cricket (2014-2024)
Data sourced from ESPN Cricinfo. Figure adapted
Somewhere along the road, Kohli’s judgement of both line and length has gone awry.
The question he is left with is one that will be his ultimate test: is he able to, for the first time, go away from the ways which served him so well in his early years in favour of a new set of principles that could see him thrive in the twilight of his career?
Alternatively, can he make what he already has work again and quell those excoriating a technique which earned him all the achievements cricket had to offer not so long ago?
‘Look at what Tendulkar did against Australia in 2003/2004’ – but should he?
Cricket fans get giddy when an opportunity for drawing parallels presents itself. On more than one occasion Sachin Tendulkar’s 2003/2004 BGT campaign has been cited as a blueprint and source of inspiration for Kohli.
Tendulkar’s short-lived struggles outside the off stump became a talking point before he decided to put away the cover drive altogether. Resorting to all other shots at his disposal Tendulkar scored his 2nd highest Test score (241*), highlighting that grit and a willingness to change can bear fruit.
While endearing, both men’s attitudes and approaches to the red-ball game are polar opposite. Tendulkar was calm, measured and clinical. Kohli, at least in his pomp, was bold, counterattacking and uncompromising. In terms of strokeplay, Tendulkar was blessed with a near-complete game while Kohli grounds his game in a few key scoring areas.
Both men have won games of cricket for their teams in a way the other could not achieve – a testament to what they each brought to Indian cricket at different points in the nation’s journey to prominence.
Furthermore, batting conditions in the 2020s are arguably more difficult than in the 1990s and 2000s. Australia and South Africa have seen a spike in faster, greener and more unpredictable wickets. Meanwhile a greater frequency of raging turners in the subcontinent sees Tests concluding regularly within 3 days.
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Tendulkar played in an era where nearly every side flaunted seasoned bowling veterans, and in some cases, geniuses – Glenn McGrath, Wasim Akram, Curtly Ambrose, Shaun Pollock, Allan Donald, Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan, to name a few. In terms of technical examinations, Tendulkar rarely had a series to relax. Nonetheless, the pitches he batted on were typically less volatile, providing him more of an even playing field.
In this way, scoring consistent runs in a bowler-dominated era in bowler-friendly conditions was not something Tendulkar had to contend with.
So for Kohli, it may not be wise to directly replicate Tendulkar.
Sachin Tendulkar, nicknamed ‘The Little Master’, currently sits as Test cricket’s all-time highest run scorer (15,921) and century maker (51)
“Sachin Tendulkar Autograph” by arunramu is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Fight fire with water?
Kohli has a chance to alleviate his technical burden by finessing a game plan which proved so fruitful for so long. Nevertheless, it does not call for the complete abandonment of what defines ‘Virat Kohli’.
It calls for a realisation that ‘Virat Kohli’ can add to his greatness by adopting a Plan B early in his innings to, later, give him a chance to unleash the beloved Plan A again.
This might mean playing more back-foot shots through the off side as opposed to looking to drive on the up. Kohli’s aggressive counterattacking instincts, similar to Ponting’s, have always seen him press forward as the default. But as pitches around the world become increasingly erratic this style of play comes with substantial jeopardy.
A revised game plan may mean embracing a more leg-side-dominant approach, a game he is already an expert in. Steven Smith has built an entire legacy doing just this as his peers have fallen around him. This opens up the possibility of being an accumulator of runs, and not necessarily a plunderer of runs, early on.
And, it may mean injecting a little more of that ODI/T20 energy between the wickets to initially accrue runs through more 1s and 2s, something his gold-standard fitness levels give him the luxury to do over his contemporaries. Channeling his white-ball fortes could see him minimise risky boundary-seeking options while still pushing the score along; admittedly, he will need a willing partner at the other end in this endeavour.
Concluding remarks
If cricket could be ‘completed’, Virat Kohli has every right to say he has done just that. With every ICC accolade under his belt and record-breaking achievements we may never see again in white-ball cricket, ‘King Kohli’ has carved himself a unique niche in the uppermost echelon of cricket’s finest.
Test cricket is never easy, even for someone who once made it appear so. Just as the format has evolved in recent years, perhaps it is time for Kohli too to consider entering a new era of his own.
In Tendulkar, his idol delivered a monumental lesson in restraint and adaptability showing there is always another way to score runs. With a 5-Test series against England on its way, can Kohli dip into the well one more time?
Or, will he see any form of re-invention as a sign of submission? As someone who has demonstrated impeccable situational awareness in the past, something we still see in the white-ball arena, it would be foolish to think that Kohli has been truly beaten.
The swansong for the ‘King’ draws nearer. Yet, from what we have seen of him since his debut there is likely one last twist in this legendary tale, and one final gift in store for the nation and his fans.
If anyone can answer the question, ‘Why is Virat Kohli struggling in Test cricket?’, it is the great man himself.
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