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After Australia posted a big score on the board, India suffered a top-order collapse in the first session of Day 3 of Gabba Test. Mitchell Starc struck twice to dismiss young batters Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill. Then, Josh Hazlewood in his comeback game after missing pink-ball Test lured Virat Kohli into a drive way outside the off stump. As it has happened several times, Kohli nicked one to the wicketkeeper and departed for a single-digit score. As Hazlewood dismissed Kohli for the 11th time in international cricket equalling New Zealand pacer Tim Southee's record, fans were not happy with the star India batter.
A few fans on social media urged Kohli to retire like MS Dhoni did during his tour of Australia. In 2014, Dhoni retired from Test cricket after the third Test of the series at Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) ended in a draw. Dhoni registered scores of 11 and 24 not out in his final Test. In the fourth and final Test of the series, Wriddhiman Saha kept wickets for India under Kohli's captaincy.
The 36-year-old has struggled in the first innings in 2024. His first innings average of 13.22 in the calendar year is inferior to Mitchell Starc (16) and New Zealand's Matt Henry (15.78). With players who have more than 100 runs, New Zealand's wicketkeeper-batter Tom Blundell (13.17) and Southee (13.18) are the only ones with average lower than Kohli in the first innings.
The last time Kohli registered a fifty-plus score in the first innings of a Test was in 2023. He scored 121 against West Indies. In the last six Tests (including Gabba Test), Kohli's first innings scores are 0, 1, 4, 5, 7 and 3. Kohli's average against Australia in the format has slipped below 50 as well. In the ongoing tour, this is the fourth time he has departed after edging the ball to the wicketkeeper or slip cordon.
