The ton eluding Virat Kohli

Make no mistake, Virat Kohli is still in good form and is contributing to the team's success. It's just that he has not been able to reach that elusive milestone of a 100 in international cricket for a long time now. The last time Virat Kohli scored a century in international cricket, it was against Bangladesh in India's inaugural pink ball test match. In the match played at the Eden Gardens, Virat Kohli scored 136 off 194 balls with the help of 18 fours while batting at a strike rate of 70. His knock helped India to a total of 347 as they bowled out Bangladesh for 106 and 195 in the two innings to win the match by an innings and 46 runs. Since that century, Virat Kohli has played a total of 40 matches in international cricket. From those, he has scored 1646 runs at an average of 43.31 with the best of 94 not out but has not managed a century. It will take a fool to doubt the credentials of the Indian captain as he has already scored over 22,000 International runs from a total of 435 matches including ODIs, T20Is and test cricket at an average of 55.78 At the same time, it will be safe to say that Kohli has certainly not been at his best over the last couple of years. In the IPL as well, the last time he scored over 500 runs in a season was in 2018. And, for a player who sets very high standards for himself, he will want to continue getting better. Kohli scored 464 runs in IPL 2019 at an average of 33.14. In IPL 2020, though he scored 466 runs at an average 42.36, his strike rate of 121.35 left a lot to be desired. But, there is no cause for worry as it will take just one big knock for Virat Kohli to turn things around. Rest assured that once he registers one International century, many more will follow. Kohli has a busy calendar in front of him to achieve that. Post the IPL, India will play the final of the World Test Championship against New Zealand at Southampton in England followed by a 5 match test series against England. This will be followed by the T20 world Cup in India and one is quite sure that in one of these matches, a big one will come from the blade of the Indian captain which will change the face of the match.