It would be a vast understatement to suggest that 2024 has been one of Virat Kohli’s worse years as an international player. A single half-century, arguably one of the most significant of his remarkable career, has come from fifteen innings across all formats: his multi-geared 76 against South Africa in the T20 World Cup final earned him Player-of-the-Match honours in his final 20-over appearance for his country.
Other than that, Kohli struggled in the T20 World Cup on the untrustworthy pitches in New York that mostly benefited the pacers and in the three One-Day Internationals held in Colombo last month on the devilishly spin-friendly surfaces. A far cry from the run-hungry machine that ruled the sport for five years between the end of 2014 and the end of 2019, he was made to look decidedly human on both continents.
Since January 4, when India defeated South Africa in two days in Cape Town to level an exciting match 1-1, Kohli has not participated in a Test match. He missed all five of the Test matches against England because to a paternity leave, but he made a spectacular comeback in the Indian Premier League in 2024, scoring 741 striking runs to lead Royal Challengers Bengaluru to their last playoff push. The subsequent plateauing of the national team’s achievements, however, has been exacerbated by Joe Root’s extraordinary form, who has found newfound success in the five-day format following his dismissal as captain two years ago.
Kohli’s graph has moved in the opposite way from Root’s, which has risen steadily. In the past several years, the Fab Four batting group in international cricket has reduced by half. With Steve Smith and Virat Kohli losing their way, just Joe Root and Kane Williamson remain members of the Terrific Two club.
Since Kohli has never been good at labels, tags, or pigeonholing people, he won’t be too upset about the outside world’s “downgrading” of his standing. After all, he freely admits that he doesn’t pay much attention to what he refers to as “outside noise.” Nonetheless, the self-assured rival will own that he has fallen short of his own expectations.
Without a doubt, Root’s current explosive form will energize him, as great champions do. However, Kohli won’t view Root as his rival because he is mostly competing against himself and will be more intent on improving with each game.
In September 2022, during the T20 Asia Cup in Dubai against Afghanistan, Kohli ended an almost three-year stretch without scoring an international century. He did make a historic 186 against Australia in March of last year on an absolute featherbed in Ahmedabad, and he followed it up with 121 in Port of Spain seven months later. That one T20I century opened the floodgates, especially in One-Day Internationals; he has only gone four innings without a Test ton.
It wouldn’t be accurate to state that he has struggled with Test cricket given that he scored 38, 76, 46, and 12 on subpar wickets in South Africa during those four knockouts. But since he is Virat Kohli and hasn’t quite matched up to the beast mode he’s been sliding into for the past five years, he will always be viewed differently, which contributes to the impression that he hasn’t quite matched up.
It’s not like time is Kohli’s ally. He is a month and a half away from turning thirty-six, and he has finished sixteen years at the top level. He is fitter than anyone, but he needs to realize that his time is running out. From that angle, the next four months will be monumental. He has a stellar Test record in Australia, where he has played just one Test in the previous five and a half years, so five Tests at home will be the ideal appetizer before the main entrée.
