It Is Official - Virat Kohli's 2020 Tour Of New Zealand A Bigger Nightmare Than England 2014

When one writes about Virat Kohli, it is about a record which he creates while batting or with his captaincy. Generally, in the last decade, one has seen only tributes for the way Kohli keeps breaking records with ease. There has been only one major slump in his career and that was during the 2014 tour of England when barring the Twenty20 International, he was undone by seam and swing. The low-point of 2014 resulted in greater things for Virat Kohli and he became a modern great. However, six years later, the nightmare of England 2014 has been repeated in New Zealand 2020. The performances in the ongoing tour has made one thing official. The 2020 tour of New Zealand is Virat Kohli's worst, even worse than the 2014 tour of England.

The basic criteria for making this assumption is that both tours were full tours, meaning events which included Twenty20 Internationals, ODIs and Tests in the entire period. This assumption does not take into account series in which there were only Tests, Tests and ODIs, ODIs, ODI and T20Is. The criteria does not take into account that the number of games in the format vary, as was the case in England and New Zealand. This is a total performance taken across one entire tour featuring all three formats.

In the New Zealand tour which consisted of five Twenty20 Internationals, three ODIs and two Tests, Kohli managed just one fifty and that was in the ODI at Seddon Park in Hamilton. In the five-match T20I series which India won 5-0, Kohli managed just 105 runs with an average of 26 with the highest of 45 in Auckland. In the ODIs, barring that 51 in Hamilton, Kohli managed 15 and 9 in Auckland and Mount Maunganui. In the Tests at Wellington and Christchurch, following his LBW dismissal for the second time in the match at the Hagley Oval, Kohli managed scores of 2,19,3 and 14 to finish with just 38 runs in the two Tests at an average of 9.5.

Lower Numbers Than England

Virat Kohli managed a total of 218 runs in 12 innings combined across all formats at an average of 19.81 on the tour. During the series against England, Kohli scored 134 runs in the five Tests at an average of 13.4 while he managed just 54 runs in four ODIs with a highest of 40. He ended the tour on a high with 66 in the lone Twenty20 International in Birmingham as he ended with 254 runs at an average of 16.93 across the tour. Kohli played more innings in England while in New Zealand, Kohli played fewer Tests.

Virat Kohli did not score a century on the entire tour for the second time since England 2014. (Image credit: Getty Images)

The only thing similar to both England and New Zealand is that Kohli managed just one fifty and one score of fourty and failed to hit a century in the entire tour. In the 2014 tour, Kohli hit 66 in a T20I in Birmingham and smashed 40 in Nottingham. In the current tour, Kohli hit fifty in Hamilton and hit 45 in Auckland but the rest of his returns were woeful. This may be only the second time that Kohli has had a lean patch on the tour but it is not the first time where he has failed to perform in a series.

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During the 2013 tour to South Africa, Kohli failed in the ODIs but was brilliant in the Tests. In the 2017 four-Test series against Australia, Kohli managed just 46 runs in three Tests at an average of 9.2. The series ended on a poor note for Kohli as he was forced to miss the Dharamsala Test, the deciding game of the series due to a shoulder injury. In his first series in 2011 against the West Indies, Kohli managed just 76 runs in three Tests at an average of 15.33 as he had a tough start to his career. However, the current tour of New Zealand has shown that Virat Kohli is mortal afterall.

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