Indian skipper Virat Kohli's horror run in New Zealand continues with his score of just two runs in seven deliveries in the Test series opener on Friday in Wellington. The knock now leaves him century less in 19 innings across formats, his worst run with the bat since his 2014 England run.
Kohli last hit a century in November 2019 against Bangladesh in the pink-ball Test in Kolkata, scoring 136 in the first innings. Since then, he scored six fifty-plus scores - two in T20Is and three in ODIs. In New Zealand, he managed scores of 45, 11, 38 and 11 in four T20Is, 51, 15 and 9 in the ODIs.
This means Kohli has been without a century across formats in 19 games. The last time he endured such a poor run with the bat was back in 2014, when he went century less for 25 consecutive innings and it included his horror run in England that year where he managed only 134 runs in 10 innings. Prior to that, Kohli had gone century less in 24 straight innings between February to September 2011. The period saw a dip in his ODI batting average from 48 to 39.
Meanwhile, India were put to bat first on the gree Basin Reserve track under the cloudy skies in Wellington. Prithvi Shaw was dismissed on 16 in the first hour before debutant Kyle Jamiseon's double strike within 10 balls - dismissing Cheteshwar Pujara and Kohli - left India huffing and puffing their way to 79 for three at lunch.
