Virat Kohli T20I Stats in Australia: Should King Kohli be selected to ICC T20 World Cup 2022 -- Check numbers

Add as a preferred source on Google

Bengaluru, July 12: Virat Kohli has not faced such a scrutiny of his cricketing powers as he has been subjected to in the recent months.

Of course, Kohli has not scored a hundred since December 2019, and alarmingly over 70 innings have passed without a hundred by India’s most trusted all-weather batter.

Legendary Kapil Dev recently opened heated debate when he said Kohli should be dropped if he is not scoring runs, and he should not be given any privilege that is not accorded to other cricketers like R Ashwin.

If the recent T20I series can be taken as a portend, then India has embraced power-hitting approach quite similar to England. The relentless social media pundits are already busy making 'Jammyball’ viral across platforms.

India have some players who can tee off from Ball 1 like Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Hardik Pandya, Sanju Samson etc and they all have raised claims to be considered for the big event in this calendar — the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia later this year.

Does Kohli fit into this new power game concept of India? As a batter, Kohli builds a crescendo after often coming in at No 3, and ends the innings with a flourish. Now, that’s the convention approach to batting.

It needs a batsman at the other end to sustain the tempo of scoring, and if it does not come off then the innings can sink like a ship sucked into a whirlpool.

Kohli showed some change in mindset during his brief stay in the 3rd T20I against England when he hammered a six and four in a knock of 11.

If anything, it showed that Kohli can detonate a grenade if necessary but the general lack of form that he is going through is a concern.

The other factor that will worry India is that there are no T20I matches after the Asia Cup, scheduled to be held in August in either Sri Lanka or Bangladesh, except the warm-up games ahead of the T20 World Cup.

So, the selectors will have to think long and hard before taking a call on Kohli’s slot in the India squad for the T20 World Cup.

However, there is another dimension that will prompt the bigwigs to have deeper thought on Kohli’s future in T20I format.

It is his excellent T20I record and stats. He has never scored a hundred in 99 T20Is but his contributions have remained strong as evidenced by 30 fifties in that format and he is also the second highest run-getter behind Rohit Sharma in T20Is with 3308 runs.

Kohli also boasts of a wonderful record against Australia at home and in Australia.

Let’s take a look at the T20 stats of Kohli.

Virat Kohli T20I stats

Overall

M: 99, R: 3308, Avg: 50.12, SR: 137.66

T20 Stats Vs Australia

M: 19, R: 718, Avg: 59.89, SR: 146.23

T20 Stats in In Australia

M: 11, R: 451, Avg: 64.42, SR: 144.55

T20 Stats As Captain

M: 50, R: 1570, Avg: 47.57, SR: 140.55

T20 Stats Not As Captain

M: 49, R: 1738, Avg: 52.66, SR: 135.14

Home T20 Stats

M: 39, R: 1420, Avg: 56.80, SR: 150

Away T20 Stats

M: 38, R: 1205, Avg: 43.03, SR: 136

Neutral venue T20 Stats

M: 22, R: 683, Avg: 52.52, SR: 119