Is Virat Kohli the same cricketer that he once was? Recent stats would answer in the negative. While his career average in Tests is 49.53, but since January 2022, it’s only 31.42 in the longest format. In ODIs, his career average is 57.68, but in 2022, it’s 21.87. In T20Is too, his average this year is 20.25, while his career average is 50.12. All those stats point to the fact that the former India captain is not having a great time on the field. After being rested for the Tour of West Indies and Zimbabwe, Kohli will be making a comeback in the Asia Cup.

Ahead of the continental event, former India cricketer Aakash Chopra has written that Kohli’s bat ‘isn’t obeying his commands anymore’.

“There’s no doubt in anyone’s mind about Virat Kohli’s class and his skills, and even if he doesn’t score another run in international cricket from here on, he will still be regarded as one of the greatest to have played the game. A man who did superhuman things and mastered all three formats like almost no others,” Aakash Chopra wrote in his column for espncricinfo.

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“Still, there’s also no hiding from the fact that the bat that worked like a magic wand isn’t obeying his commands anymore. There are more misses than hits. The aura of invincibility has faded and his presence doesn’t instill the same fear in bowlers’ minds as it used to earlier.”

Chopra added that for India’s sake, Kohli needs to find form soon. “I’m in no way suggesting that Kohli’s story is remotely close to its final pages. In fact, considering all that he has achieved, his commitment to his fitness and his fighting spirit, the chances that he will be able to produce an encore are high. But it’s also important that it happens soon enough, for the sake of his and India cricket’s immediate future. After all, there is a World Cup starting in about eight weeks,” he wrote.