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Follow UsAnother day, another dismissal for Virat Kohli edging the ball to the slip cordon. All his eight dismissals in the series have come with the batter edging the ball behind the wicket.
In what was potentially his final innings on Australian soil, Kohli floundered the opportunity to hand India the control after the bowlers bowled their hearts out to eke out a slender four-run lead. With India losing their openers KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal in a span of 15 deliveries, the team would have hoped that their senior statesman would dig them out of a hole.
However, it was not to be as Scott Boland managed to remove Kohli for the fourth time in the series, this time for six off 12, potentially marking his final outing in Australia and, dare I say, his final Test innings ever.
It was in Australia that he silenced critics with his maiden ton in Adelaide in 2011, and there began a love affair with the country.
Regardless of the format, Kohli was there when his team needed him and very rarely let them down against his fiercest rivals. An average of 51.03 in ODIs and 74.7 in T20Is (in Australia) are numbers players can only dream of.
It is Test cricket that Kohli prides himself on. He started off the series with an average of 54.08 in Australia. Nine innings later, it has dipped to 46.72 - superb numbers, but not according to the standards Kohli has set for himself over the years.
With his hundred in the first Test in Perth in the ongoing series, one felt that his love affair with Australia would continue. However, in eight innings other than that, it seemed as though before it would just be a matter of time before he would edge one and walk off. It became a pattern - an annoying and frustrating one.
It's a dip that's scarred his career as a whole. As someone who was tipped to beat Sachin Tendulkar's record of 100 centuries, he had a century drought of four years. His 136 against Bangladesh at the Eden Gardens in 2019 saw him reach an average of 54.97. At that point, he had 27 Test tons to his name. From there, nobody in the world would have expected that average to dip under 47!
Looking back, one could give Kohli the benefit of the doubt for failing to get going in England on their 2014 tour, where James Anderson made his life a living hell. There, too, he poked outside off and landed the ball in the hands of the wicketkeeper at slip. It was inevitable.
10 years down the line, it seems like that's how his career would end...or would it? Or is "standing down" an option for Kohli too?
