Virat Kohli's Test Average Records New Low, Falls Below 49 In 2022 After Another Failure Against Bangladesh

IND vs BAN: Despite Kohli's failure with the bat in both the innings of the second Test match against Bangladesh, India recorded a thrilling 3-wicket win to clinch the series 2-0.

India's Virat Kohli gestures during a practice session at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram on December 13, 2022, ahead of their first Test cricket match against Bangladesh.

Source : Munir uz zaman / AFP

While Virat Kohli is widely regarded among the greats of the game, the star India batter hasn't been in the best of forms especially in red-ball cricket. Although he did end his international century drought with a hundred each in T20Is and ODIs apart from having a great run in the T20 World Cup 2022, in Test match cricket he is yet to get a big score- the one the world is used to see him notch regularly.

As a result, Kohli's Test batting average has fallen to a record low after yet another failure in the second Test match against Bangladesh. The 34-year-old scored 24 runs in the 1st innings before falling to Taskin Ahmed. In the second innings it was Mehidy Hasan who got the big wicket of Kohli when he had only scored 1. With this, his overall Test batting average went below 49 at 48.90 in 177 innings- the third lowest since the start of his career.

Kohli averaged just 26.5 in Test matches in 2022

With this being the right-handed batter's last innings in the calendar year, Kohli ends 2022 with an average of just 26.5 in 11 innings. This is not the same batter that everyone recognised to be a world beating force. However, as Kohli showed with his resurgence in limited-overs cricket, he could definitely come back in a fitting response to those writing him off.

India win against Bangladesh

Despite Kohli's failure with the bat in the second Test match against Bangladesh, India recorded a thrilling 3-wicket win to clinch the series 2-0. Even though the Men in Blue's target of 145 runs appeared a lowly total, in the fourth innings of a Test match with pitches offering more and more assistance to the spinners as the match progressed, it wasn't a walk in the park by any means. India, in fact, lost their 7th wicket at the score of  for 74 runs and needed 71 more runs to win the match with just 3 wickets in hand.

However, R Ashwin and Shreyas Iyer finished the job for the team. The two came back only once the match had been sealed with Ashwin remaining unbeaten on 42 and Shreyas finishing with 29. Ashwin was adjudged the Player of the Match for his match-winning knock along with the 6 wickets that he scalped in the Test.