Picked on reputation: Virat Kohli's poor run of form leaves fans frustrated

ENG vs IND, 2nd ODI: Virat Kohli started his knock with three fours off Reece Topley, but got out to left-armer David Willey at the Lord's Cricket Ground.

Virat Kohli, on Thursday, July 14, played his first game of the ongoing ODI series between India and England, but he failed to make much of an impact. The 33-year-old missed the first game at the Kennington Oval in London due to a groin injury and replaced Shreyas Iyer at the Lord’s Cricket Ground in London.

After being asked to chase down 248 at the Home of Cricket, India lost the early wicket of Rohit Sharma to fast bowler Reece Topley. Kohli came to bat in the third over and started his knock with eight dot balls.

Thereafter, Kohli upped his game and smashed Topley for three glorious fours. The Delhi-born batter was starting to give a glimpse of the damage he can do with the bat. In the first ball of the 11th over, Kohli had luck going his way after an inside-edge of his bat didn’t crash onto the stumps.

But Kohli ran out of luck in the very next over. Left-arm pacer David Willey accounted for the wicket of Virat, who hasn’t scored a century since the Day-Night Test against Bangladesh in November 2019.

Willey bowled a good-length delivery and Kohli made a tentative poke at it. To Kohli’s dismay, he found an outside edge and Jos Buttler took a simple catch with the gloves in hand.

Kohli perished after scoring 16 runs off 25 balls with three fours. When Kohli departed, India were tottering at 31 for the loss of four wickets in 11.2 overs.