IPL 2023: Kohli comeback complete in 8 months

IPL 2023: Kohli comeback complete in 8 months

International cricket superstar Virat Kohli completed his comeback in every format and tournament of cricket in 8 months by scoring IPL century after 4 years and 29 days. After the 70th international century in 2019, no century came from Virat's bat till September 2022.

Virat was able to cross the figure of Fifty, but not the century. Then Kohli played an unbeaten inning of 122 against Afghanistan in the T20 Asia Cup on 8 September 2022. It was from here that the story of the biggest comeback of international cricket started.

Since then, with hundreds in T20s, ODIs and Tests, he ended the century drought in IPL as well. He hit only 4 sixes in his century against SRH, on which he said after the match that he is also focusing on the World Test Championship. That is why he is focusing more on hitting fours with timing.

In the next story, we will know the story of Virat Kohli comeback in 8 months. Also, we will understand how he performed in all three formats during this period and now how his performance is going in IPL.

Century had a break from 2019

Know a little about Virat's struggle before his comeback. On 22 November 2019, Kohli scored 136 off 194 balls in the Test against Bangladesh at Kolkata. This was the 70th International Century of his career. After this century, he played 18 Tests, 23 ODIs and 31 T20 matches, but could not score a century in any format.

Even in the 3 seasons of IPL, the century did not come from his bat. Many cricket experts called it the worst phase of Virat. But even in 72 international matches of this era, he scored 2708 runs with the help of 26 fifty. But due to not having a century, it was termed as Kohli's biggest struggle.

Did not play 20 matches after

IPL 2022 After the struggle in international cricket, even in the 2022 IPL, his bat did not yield runs. His team played 16 matches in the season, including the playoffs, but Virat could only score 341 runs at an average of 22.73 and a strike rate of 115.99. Only 2 Fifty came from his bat. It was also Virat's worst IPL since 2010. Even in the 2021 season, he could only score 405 runs.

After the average performance in IPL, many experts talked about keeping him out of Team India. Even before the T20 Asia Cup starting on 27 August 2022, he played only 5 matches in all three formats. During this, Team India played a total of 25 matches, but in 20 matches, Virat was not included in the squad in the name of rest.

Comeback started from T20 Asia Cup

After missing 20 matches from Team India, Virat was also included in the team for the Asia Cup starting in UAE. Kohli scored 2 consecutive fifties after scoring 35 runs in the first match against Pakistan. Team India could not reach the Asia Cup final, but the team's last match was against Afghanistan.

Most runs scored in T20 World Cup

In the very first match of the T20 World Cup, which started in Australia in October, Virat played one of the best innings of his career against Pakistan. He scored an unbeaten 82 off 53 balls and took India to victory in a nearly lost match. Kohli scored the highest 296 runs in 6 matches of the tournament with the help of 4 Fifty.

Scored ODI century after 1214 days

Virat Kohli was rested on the tour of New Zealand after the T20 World Cup. He was included on the Bangladesh tour. After scoring 9 and 5 in the first 2 ODIs, he scored a century in the third ODI on 10 December 2022. Virat played an inning of 113 runs on 91 balls. This was the 44th century of his ODI career, which came after 1214 days.

Kohli last scored an ODI century on 14 August 2019 against the West Indies. ODI is his best format. After scoring a century against Bangladesh, Virat did not stop and scored 2 more centuries in the first ODI series of 2023 against Sri Lanka. These included a not out inning of 166 runs off 110 balls