Virat Kohli vs New Zealand: The tour of New Zealand has proved to be very disappointing for Virat Kohli, one of the biggest pillars of Indian cricket. Even in the last match of the five-match ODI series, Kohli's bat remained silent and he returned to the pavilion after scoring only 5 runs. After making a great start with a half-century in Auckland, Kohli seemed to have lost his rhythm throughout the series and could score only 86 runs in total in four innings.
Started with 74 runs, then ended at 7, 0 and 5
Virat Kohli had started this ODI series in a very strong manner, but after that he looked helpless in front of the Kiwi bowlers in three consecutive innings. In the first ODI, Kohli played a brilliant match-winning inning of 74 runs, due to which India started the series with a win. But after an excellent start, he was out in the second match after scoring only 7 runs. In the fourth match, he was bowled by Matt Henry's incoming ball without opening the account. Now even in the last match of the series he could add only 5 runs.
That means he could not touch double figures in 3 consecutive matches. Earlier in Virat Kohli's career, this had happened only once before when he was out with a score of less than 10 thrice in a bilateral ODI series. During Pakistan's tour of India in 2012-13, Kohli scored 0, 6 and 7 runs in three innings. Due to this poor performance, Virat's ODI average in New Zealand has also declined drastically. After the first match of this series, his ODI average in New Zealand was 51.53, which has now come down to 42.62. This is also his lowest ODI average in any country.
Virat's highest single-digit scores in ODI series/tournament
ICC Cricket World Cup – 2011 – 3 times
Pakistan tour of India – 2012/13 – 3 times
Carlton Mid ODI Tri-Series – 2014/15 – 3 times
India tour of New Zealand – 2026 – 3 times