Virat Kohli will try to regain his old form with the bat in the ODI series vs South Africa
Virat Kohli has not captained the Indian cricket team in any form for the first time since January 2015 and Indian cricket fans would hope this could spur the batter to step out and regain his old form with the bat. Kohli, the batter, has had a rough time in all formats, not scoring a century since November 2019. while now.
While Kohli is the best all-format batter of this generation, if there’s one format he’s mastered since the start of his career, it’s the one-day internationals. And the upcoming series against South Africa offers Kohli a chance to regain his old form.
When he steps up to Paarl in the first ODI, Kohli will be just a few runs away from surpassing two Indian legends in an elite roster. Current head coach Rahul Dravid (1309 runs) and BCCI president Sourav Ganguly (1313 runs) are respectively third and second in the list of Indian batters with the most runs against South Africa in ODIs. Kohli is currently fourth on the list with 1287 runs, with the great Sachin Tendulkar who scored in 57 games against the Proteas in 2001 at the top of the list.
In fact, Sachin also leads the overall list, followed by Ricky Ponting, who has 1,879 runs against South Africa.
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What sets Kohli apart from the rest is the fact that he scores a whopping 64.35 against South Africa in ODIs and has scored 4 centuries and 6 half-centuries against them.
The last time India played a bilateral ODI series in South Africa, they knocked the hosts down and Kohli hoped he can contribute generously with the bat to help India win the series and regain some lost pride after he had fallen in the Tests.
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