Afridi questions Virat Kohli's attitude: A look at notable numbers
Former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi has often made headlines for his controversial remarks on Indians. This time, he has questioned the motivation of Indian batter Virat Kohli. Highlighting his poor form, Afridi asked whether Kohli "wants to be number one again". Notably, Kohli hasn't scored an international century in over two years. He averaged a mere 22.73 in the 2022 Indian Premier League season.
"Kohli, earlier in his career, wanted to be the No. 1 batsman in the world. Is he still playing with the same motivation? That is the big question. Does he really even want to be number one again? Or does he think he has achieved everything in life. Now just relax and pass time? It's all about attitude," Afridi said on Samaa TV.
In April, Kohli played his 100th competitive game without scoring a century. The tally included 17 Tests, 21 ODIs, 25 T20Is, and 37 IPL matches. His last century came in 2019 during the Day/Night Test against Bangladesh in Kolkata. He had scored 136 off 194 during India's first innings. Since then, Kohli has failed to touch the three-digit figure in competitive cricket.
Since the start of 2020, Kohli averages less than 50 in T20Is (47.35), less than 40 in ODIs (39), and less than 30 in Tests (28.03). He also fared poorly in India's last Test series against Sri Lanka. Kohli scored just 81 runs across three innings against the Island Nation. Since November 2019, he has scored just 841 runs in 30 Test innings.
Kohli didn't have a desirable run as per his standards in IPL 2022. He could fetch only 341 runs at 22.73. He recorded three ducks in the season, joint-most in 2022 with KL Rahul, Rashid Khan, Sunil Narine, Tim Southee, and Anuj Rawat.
Despite his lean patch, Kohli still averages 54.11 in international cricket. He has the seventh-most runs (23,650) across formats. With 70 international centuries to his name, Kohli is only behind Sachin Tendulkar (100) and Ricky Ponting (71). Among active cricketers, David Warner and Joe Root follow Kohli with 43 tons each. Well, Kohli is just a knock away from getting his mojo back!
