As Virat Kohli lets go of the Test whites, his 210 innings encompass a start that wasn’t quite meteoric, the somewhat barren run towards the end, and an undisputable purple patch in between.
It’s the superhuman phase that began with his first Test as captain in Australia in 2014, only a year after taking over the No.4 spot from his immediate predecessor Sachin Tendulkar. It suggested that he would follow his idol as well as Rahul Dravid and Sunil Gavaskar, in becoming the fourth Indian to conquer Test cricket’s Mt. 10,000.
But even after his imperious 100-innings stretch, lasting nearly six-and-a-half years, Kohli stopped at 9,230 runs at 46.83, his average regressing from its peak, which began in late 2014.
10k runs/50-plus career average – either one or both were widely expected to be ticked off by the end of Kohli’s career, the predictions coming even before he touched 30 in late 2018. In the 2010s, which began with the final chapters of the Tendulkar saga, Kohli dominated Test cricket with 7,202 runs at 54.97 and 27 centuries.
But the post-COVID-19 lull put paid to those expectations. As the pandemic raged, batting averages slumped across the board, Kohli was among the worst-hit – his 30.72 average was the lowest of all 24 batters who aggregated at least 2,000 runs since 2020.
In retrospect, the Delhi boy went hard from zero to zenith in his 20s. And while most batters flourish through their mid-30s, in Kohli’s case, they brought a subdued finish.
Between 2011 and 2018, before his 30th birthday, Kohli notched up 6,331 runs at 54.57. Though eight other batters acquired more runs in their 20s, only Tendulkar (57.58) and Jacques Kallis (57.07) averaged higher. But of the 12 batters who amassed at least 6,000 runs in their 20s, only three made fewer runs in their 30s than Kohli’s 2,899, while none posted a lower average than his (35.79).
It is here that Kohli’s speed dipped in comparison to Tendulkar and Dravid, who maintained a near 50-average in lengthy stints either side of their 30s. Kohli’s exuberant 20s, however, remain in the history books.