2 years since Virat Kohli's last century; What do the numbers say?

It has been a turbulent couple of years for Virat Kohli, as the captain of the Indian cricket team is going through a tough passage with the bat. A disappointing T20 World Cup 2021 proved to be the final straw for the Delhi-born maestro as his captaincy reign in the shortest format came to a bittersweet end. Baptism of criticism followed as Kohli and company returned with empty hands. Today (23 November) will mark the second anniversary of Kohli’s last century in any form of cricket.

Numbers don’t lie and if we dig deep into those numbers, one figure Kohli needs to focus on is 100. It’s been more than 700 days since the 33-year-old managed to raise his bat for a ton. This includes both International matches and the Indian Premier League (IPL). In 86 innings since, he hasn’t managed to cross the three-figure mark even once. Although Covid-19 lockdown did prevent players from entering the field, it is still a vast period in which he hasn’t produced the goods, especially for someone with 70 tons in international cricket and four in a single IPL season. 

The Indian captain had scored 136 as India hammered Bangladesh by an innings and 46 runs in November 2019 in their first-ever pink-ball Test. Since then, he has played 21 Test innings and has managed only five half-centuries with the highest score of 74 against Australia at Adelaide in the Border-Gavaskar series earlier this year. 

When it comes to ODIs, he has been a little more consistent with runs but could not reach the magic number in 15 innings. His best score of 89 during this period came against Australia in November 2020 at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG). His last ODI hundred came in August 2019 against West Indies in Port of Spain with an unbeaten 114. Moreover, he has managed to score four fifties in his last five ODIs, meaning that form is not a concern at least in this format.

The former Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) captain has played 50 innings in T20 cricket (international and IPL). In 20 innings at the international level, he has the highest score of unbeaten 94 against West Indies in December 2019 in Hyderabad. That is the closest he has come to a century in two years time. In his 30 innings in IPL his highest score of 90 not out was against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in October 2020 as the 33-year-old’s side got the better of MS Dhoni’s army.

It now remains to be seen when does the former World Cup winner gets to his 71st hundred as he has been stuck there for a while. Expectations are still high from him to become just the second player to score 100 international centuries after legendary Sachin Tendulkar, but an inability to convert starts into big tons have weathered the storm for him. Currently, Kohli lies third in the table with 70 centuries and will go level with Australia great Ricky Ponting on 71 when he scores his next ton. He will be in action next in the second Test match against New Zealand in Mumbai which starts on December 3.