2020 – A quiet year in ODIs for Virat Kohli by his gold standard

Virat Kohli ended 2020 without a century in white-ball cricket and his impact in the limited-overs seemed to be little on the downside. A few voices also raised regarding his game in the ODI format as India lost five successive ODI matches for the first time in nearly five years. The major reason for this being Kohli not hitting his straps in the ODI format throughout 2020. This was only his 2nd calendar year without an ODI ton after his debut year 2008 where he played only five games.

Virat Kohli’s glorious streak comes to an end today. He managed to score at least one ODI century every year since 2009. Not to be in 2020.

Sachin Tendulkar leads the overall tally. #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/EnNLMs4HLM

— 100MB (@100MasterBlastr) December 2, 2020

Plenty of fifties, no hundreds

Virat hasn’t been at his best in terms of conversion as he scored only two ODI tons since the start of 2019 CWC; both of them coming during the West Indies tour in successive games. He crossed the 50-run mark six times in this format since then and failed to convert them into hundreds on all six occasions. India playing only nine ODI matches in 2020 contributed to Kohli not scoring a hundred in the 50-over format.

Nevertheless, Virat Kohli scored 431 runs in nine ODIs this year at an average of 47.88; which is pretty decent for any top-order batsman. Kohli got five fifties throughout the year which is almost a 50+ score in every 2nd innings. His debut year 2008 and 2015 are the only calendar years where Kohli averaged less than 45 in the ODI format. This also indicates the standards set by Virat through his 12-year International career.

Virat Kohli, however, was successful in retaining his No.1 ranking in the ODI format and that too by a big margin. He is currently on the top with 870 rating points and 28 ahead of his limited-overs deputy Rohit Sharma. The Indian skipper began the year with 887 rating points but still leads the next best by a fair margin. At the moment, there is no major issue regarding Kohli’s ODI batting if he goes by his returns in 2020. As far as centuries are considered, Kohli might start his spree if he finds that 44th ODI hundred.

(Stats as on December 10, 2020)