Decoding Virat Kohli's Dramatic Decline in Test Average: From Old Flaws to New Lows

The conclusion of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy also signaled the close of a tumultuous season for Virat Kohli in 2024/25, where his weaknesses were ruthlessly exposed and capitalized upon. Scott Boland, dismissing Kohli four times out of eight during the tour, openly acknowledged that Australia had honed in on Kohli's habit of tentatively prodding outside off stump at various junctures in his innings, whether it be at the start or once he had found his groove.

“We’ve got pretty set plans on how we want to bowl to him,” Boland said on Fox Cricket of Australia’s success against Kohli this season. “He sort of feels like he leaves a lot and then he wants to play the ball once he gets in. So, once he gets in, we just want to switch our lines a little bit to fifth stump, and it’s working at the moment.”

The poor run in Australia only reflects Kohli's stunning downfall in Test cricket since the Covid-19 pandemic.

Kohli's plummeting average in Test cricket

Before 2019, the only calendar year in which Kohli averaged less than 30 in Test matches was in 2011, his first year in the format. He had averaged 22.44 in five Tests that year, scoring two half-centuries. After that, he averaged less that 45 just twice in eight years - in 2014 when he finished with an average of 44.57 and 2015 in which he scored at 42.66. Kohli then went on an incredible run in which he averaged 75.93 in 12 Tests in 2016, 75.64 in 10 Tests 2017, 55.08 in 13 Tests in 2018 and 68.00 in eight Tests in 2019.

Since that year, however, Kohli has finished with an average in the 20s in three out of four years. He played just three Tests in 2020 and scored at 19.33 and then averaged 28.21 in 11 Tests in 2021. In 2022, Kohli played six Tests and averaged 26.50. Then came a resurgence in 2023 where Kohli averaged 55.91 in eight Tests but that has thus far turned out to be a false dawn. Kohli ended 2024 with an average of 24.52 in 10 Tests.

All this has led to a drastic dip in Kohli's career average in the longest format. Between 2011 and 2019, Kohli's career average was 54.97 in 84 Tests. Since 2020, he has scored at a meagre 30.72 in 39 Tests. Kohli's career average has hence now dipped to 46.85.

Kohli's recent unwanted records

The former India captain was out for a single digit score 10 times in the 2024/25 season. This is the joint-most for any batter batting in the top seven in a Test season. The only other player to do it? Kohli's teammate, captain and fellow struggling senior Rohit Sharma in the same season.

Kohli had scored an unbeaten 100 off 143 balls in the second innings of the first Test in Perth. Despite this, he has ended the 2024/25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy with a series average of 23.75. No batter has averaged as low as that in a series after scoring an unbeaten century (minimum of six innings) since the Second World War. It is the third lowest average overall for a batter in that criteria, Aubrey Faulkner's 19.40 in the 1912 Triangular-Series and Frank Woolley's 23.25 in 1922 in South Africa were the only such instances of lower averages.

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