Virat Kohli’s bad form continued after he was dismissed on the very first delivery that he faced on Royal Challengers Bangalore's (RCB) way to 68 all out in their Indian Premier League (IPL) match against the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in Mumbai on Saturday. This is the fifth-lowest total in the history of IPL.
Kohli lost his wicket to a perfect Marco Jansen ball with enough pace and swing to fluster the former RCB skipper. He tried to nudge the ball straight but got a thick outside edge instead as the ball travelled to Aiden Markram instead. This was Kohli’s second consecutive Golden Duck of the season, after being dismissed in a similar fashion in RCB's previous game against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG). After the match, Kohli was seen talking to former West Indian cricketer Brian Lara.
Seeing this, many fans interpreted that Lara was actually giving Kohli advice on how to get back into prime form, given that RCB are in contention for a spot in the top four.
Kohli was dismissed for his first golden duck by former India pacer Ashish Nehra while against Mumbai Indians (MI) in 2008 during the inaugural IPL season. His next golden duck came against Sandeep Sharma in 2014, followed by Australian Nathan Coulter-Nile in 2017. On that occasion, RCB were dismissed for a mere 49 runs by the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), and that is still the lowest score in the history of the IPL.
It took five years for Kohli to be removed by a Golden Duck once more, this time on the very first ball by LSG pacer Dushmantha Chameera before South African Jansen dismissed him for zero in the next match.
Kohli's highest score this season came against rock-bottom Mumbai Indians (MI). On that occasion, the former India skipper notched 48 runs. He also had an unbeaten 41 in RCB's first match of the ongoing campaign against Punjab Kings (PBKS). But barring these scores, Kohli has registered 12, 5, 1, 12, and 0 in the other matches this season.
Meanwhile, Lara is a part of SRH's coaching staff.
