Virat Kohli's terrible run of form in the recent Test series against Bangladesh sparked a meme fest on social media with netizens mocking the India superstar for his dismal showing in the neighboring country.
When the Test series in Bangladesh began, Virat Kohli was expected to bring an end to his long wait for a ton in whites, having last made a hundred in the longest version of the sport against the same team in 2019, in India's maiden Day-Night Test at the iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
However, after leaving the pavilion for a score of 1 in his final innings of 2022 on Saturday, Virat Kohli finished the Bangladesh series with only 45 runs in four knocks.
With Virat Kohli's bat failing to do the talking in the oldest format of the game, India cricket supporters joked about his credentials, with some even suggesting that it was time he hung up his boots.
Virat Kohli fans after seeing Virat Kohli s performance in this test series 🥺😑😞…
4 innings – 45 runs 🤷..#ViratKohli #INDvBAN #KLRahul pic.twitter.com/EO5YwqxcB1— ರಾಮ್_ತೀರ್ಥಹಳ್ಳಿ (@RamThirthahalli) December 24, 2022
As a batsman since 2020 pic.twitter.com/qsE582qIIh
— ‘ (@Ashwin_tweetz) December 25, 2022
Match summary#INDvBAN pic.twitter.com/EL6B50fJbn
— ಭರತ್ ರೆಡ್ಡಿ | Bharath Redd¥ (@bharath_reddyyy) December 25, 2022
https://twitter.com/1no_aalsi_/status/1606882711242952707
Ab lagta hai isko phir se Message karna padega pic.twitter.com/FWGuE6MXtC
— Siddhesh (@Sidiouslly) December 24, 2022
His trolling from the fans came after he could only post scores of 1, 19 not out, 24, and 1 against Bangladesh.
Besides his cheap dismissal at the hands of Mehidy Hasan Miraz in the fourth innings of the second Test against Bangladesh, Virat Kohli equaled his worst-ever run in the five-day version of the game, having not scored a fifty in his last 10 innings.
The only previous time the former India captain recorded such numbers was in 2014 when he could only make 134 runs during a terrible tour of England when James Anderson made him his bunny. Virat Kohli left the shores of the United Kingdom with an average of 13.40 in five Tests.
His last 10 knocks in Tests have been pathetic, to say the least, and his scores in all these innings read as 1 & 24 vs Bangladesh in the second Test, 19* & 1 vs Bangladesh in the first Test, 20 & 11 vs England, 13 & 23 vs Sri Lanka in the second Test, 45 vs Sri Lanka in the first Test and 29 vs South Africa in the second essay of the third Test.
Leaving aside a hundred, his last half-century in Test cricket came in the Cape Town Test against South Africa in the first innings, which was also his final match as the national team's skipper. Kohli had scored a well-compiled 79 off 201 deliveries at the time.
The Delhi-born cricket star's poor display with the bat meant that he finished the series with an average of 15, his second-worst performance ever in a two-game bilateral series in the Asian subcontinent. It was also his fourth-worst show with the bat in a series overall.
Not just the fans, even his childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma was left fuming with his performance in Bangladesh.
Calling Virat Kohli's dismissals as “unacceptable”, Rajkumar Sharma said that he should have shown a bit more intent, especially at the start of his innings, something he claimed led to his downfall in the Bangladesh capital.
“A batter is quite disappointed after he gets out, and Virat Kohli is very aggressive by nature,” Rajkumar Sharma told India News.
“But the way he has been getting out is not acceptable. It's unfortunate to see a batter of his stature struggle against Bangladeshi spinners. He should have shown more intent,” Rajkumar Sharma added.
“With both the mid-on and mid-off fielders inside the circle, he could have played a bit more freely. Unless you unsettle a spinner, he is not going to let you play. You need to do something innovative like playing a slog sweep or sweeping an outside off ball,” Rajkumar Sharma summed up.
Virat Kohli's continued horrendous run in whites came after he managed to turn things around in limited-overs cricket in recent months.
Earlier in September, the Delhi-born cricketer finally ended his nearly three-year wait for an international ton, having slammed his maiden T20I hundred against Afghanistan during the Asia Cup.
Subsequently, Virat Kohli set the T20 World Cup in Australia on fire with a series of sublime knocks, including a sensational unbeaten 82-run-knock against Pakistan which many cricket pundits claimed was the best-ever innings in the format.
Yet Team India failed to win the competition, bowing out in the semifinals to eventual champions England. But Virat Kohli finished as the tournament’s top-scorer with 296 runs in six matches at an incredible average of 98.66.
More recently, Virat Kohli Kohli brought an end to his ODI century drought as he smashed his 44th ton in the 50-over format against Bangladesh this month, going past Ricky Ponting to occupy the second spot in the list of men with the most international hundreds.
King Kohli now has 72 international hundreds to his name, 28 less than Sachin Tendulkar who remains the only man in cricket to notch up a century of centuries.
Additionally, Virat Kohli is just six tons away from breaking Sachin Tendulkar's record of centuries in ODIs. The Mumbai-born legend retired with 49 hundreds in the 50-over format.
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