There was a time when Virat Kohli was regarded as the best all-format batter in the world, but those were the days. Cut to the present, Virat Kohli's luck has remained the same despite the change in the format. On Thursday, he made his much-anticipated return to India's ODI team for the second match against England at Lord's but perished for a low score of 16 when the opportunity was there for him to hit a big hundred and bring the Men in Blue out of a deep hole.

Instead, he made the usual mistake of poking at a wide off-stump delivery only to be caught behind by wicketkeeper and England captain Jos Buttler off the bowling of the home side's speedster David Willey at the iconic Lord's.

According to ESPNCricinfo, more than 84 percent of Virat Kohli's dismissals since 2019 have been on balls bowled outside the off-stump.

Earlier, India's great Sunil Gavaskar had pointed out the same flaw in Virat Kohli's batting technique. Even ex-England captain Michael Vaughan had claimed that the only way the Delhi-born cricketer could be back in his elements was to tighten the noose around his off-side play.

But he didn't pay any heed to their suggestions and once again played at a ball that he could have easily left alone. On the other hand, David Willey did well to lay the trap, and Virat Kohli eventually fell for it at Lord's.

Virat Kohli's horror show at Lord's left Indian cricket fans frustrated who took to Twitter to vent out their anger on the 33-year-old cricketer.

https://twitter.com/shubhankrmishra/status/1547630244634382336

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Before Virat Kohli joined the Rohit Sharma-led Team India in the second ODI, he featured in two T20I games against England but could only register scores of 1 and 11 in his innings at Edgbaston and Trent Bridge respectively.

Virat Kohli also took part in the fifth and fifth final Test against the Three Lions at Birmingham but couldn’t reignite his form as he was dismissed for 11 and 20 in his two knocks there.

Virat Kohli had a woeful run in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and could score only 341 runs at a dismal average of 22.73 in 16 matches.

The Delhi-born cricketer’s last century in international cricket came way back in the historic Pink-ball Test against Bangladesh at the iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata in 2019.

His rough patch with the bat has now extended to nearly a thousand days. But what’s worrying every cricket fan is that his horror run is showing no signs of ending, at least for now.

Earlier, Sunil Gavaskar and Ashish Nehra had come out in support, arguing that he should be given more time to come out of his current rut with the bat.

“There will be discussions even if you’re not a player of Kohli’s calibre. When you are playing, you try to focus on your game and not listen to so-called ‘outside voices’ from people outside the dressing room. It’s important how your teammates, management and selectors are backing you… but we are talking about a guy like Virat. Yes, it’s not written anywhere that he will keep playing for India even if he doesn’t score runs. But when you have done so much in the past, you will always get extra chances,” said Ashish Nehra in a virtual interaction organized by Sony Sports.

“Everybody knows his accomplishments and the talent he has. At the age of 33, fitness isn’t a problem for him. Everybody is hopeful that Virat will come good, the quicker the better. Let’s hope we see a different Virat after the West Indies series. If he rests for a month or five odd weeks, it will be helpful for him,” he added.

“Yes, you get dropped when you don’t perform. However, there are many ifs and buts. When you’re a player like Virat who has scored runs and done so much for the country, he can’t be dropped straightaway. Yes, Virat hasn’t been among runs but dropping him isn’t the solution. We are discussing Virat as an example. Even Rohit struggled before returning to form in the 50-over game. But he struggled in this year’s IPL and other Twenty20 games. With the emergence of all formats, a player who plays across all three will get more chances to score but he can fail too,” Ashish Nehra explained.

“See, I cannot understand that when Rohit Sharma does not score runs no one talks about it. It is the same with other players as well. There is a saying that form is temporary, class is temperament. See, the kind of template they are adopting (in T20Is) where they have to swing the bat from ball one, you will succeed and fail,” Sunil Gavaskar told Sports Tak.