Virat Kohli's New Zealand tour went from bad to worse after yet another failure with the bat in Christchurch on Sunday. Kohli, who fell for 14 in his last innings of this tour, will now return back home with his worst avergae in red-ball cricket since making his debut in 2011 against West Indies.
Following his innings in Christchurch on Sunday, Kohli ended the two-match Test series with just 38 runs and an average of 9.5 -- his worst ever in Test cricket away from home. eclipsing the England tour of 2014 where he averaged 13.4. The other two in the top five worst tours for Kohli are India in West Indies in 2011 and 2013 (15.2 and 30 respectively). Australia's visit to India in 2017, where he averaged 9.2 remains his lowest-ever in Test cricket.
With scores of 2, 19, 3 & 14, this tour of New Zealand has turned out to be Virat Kohli's least productive Test series away from home. This is just the second time in a Test series with two or matches, when he hasn't crossed the 20-run mark in a single innings.
Overall, Kohli just managed to score 218 runs from 9 matches across all the formats in New Zealand.
This tour of New Zealand is also the first time since Kohli's forgetful tour of England (2014) when he hasn't scored more than one fifty in a tour. In England, Kohli had just one fifty across 15 innings in 10 matches. Kohli's only 50+ score in this tour came in the first ODI in Hamilton. The only other ocassion when has had more than three fifties in a tour was against West Indies in 2011, when he played 9 matches across formats and just two 50+ scores.
Matters get worse when centuries are considered.
This is also the first time since 2015 (minimum one Test + one ODI/T20I), when Kohli has not scored a single century in a tour. The last time it happened was in Bangladesh. The rest of the ocassions are -- England 2014, West Indies 2013/14 (Home) and West Indies 2011.
