What’s wrong with Virat Kohli’s spin game?
Kohli maybe stubborn to accept it but the record suggests he has a longstanding issue. Let’s technically explore why?
It was on a pristine winter afternoon in early 2007 on a school holiday spent watching a Ranji Trophy game at the Feroz Shah Kotla that I first saw Virat Kohli bat. During tea, he was practising before his turn at the nets adjacent to the West Stand, now called the ‘Bishan Singh Bedi’ stand. From then on, having grown up admiring and respecting his transformation from a chubby Punjabi boy from Uttam Nagar in West Delhi to the world’s finest, fittest and most celebrated cricketer of this age, Kohli’s triumphs and setbacks have felt personal. The fact that he was never a prodigy but has willed himself to greatness has probably only solidified the relatability, the inspiration and a bond.
This connect and familarity, however, have never bounded my freethinking. If anything, I’ve learnt to channelise my Kohli love in the best way possible. It’s tough, but at 27, I’ve even used it to liberate myself from his stature, unlike the generation of delusional 15-year-old bhakts of his we see on cricket twitter. Especially when I have to criticise him. Why, when I face claims of hating upon the man I hold in utmost regard and respect, I can’t help but laugh. For me, criticising Kohli is like criticising one of my own. I’m comfortable doing it to the cricketer I know and the person I love. I won’t always be praising him, but I want nothing but the best for him. I won’t be shy of voicing my criticism of him, but beneath it is also an hope that it manifests into something great eventually. No one was happier seeing him end it with a blitz at the MCG against Pakistan, but it was my right to point out the fact that when he was 12* off 21, Kohli was beginning to plague hard on India’s innings. Even he admitted it with Kohliesque honesty.
It’s the first time I am caring to explain it, so let me indulge a bit further. I’ve realised over time that beyond a constant pursuit of freedom of the mind and raising questions to all conventions of life, it’s how Kohli is that allows me to retain this equilibrium. He is the most confident and secure cricketing personality I have seen. Extremely comfortable in his skin, brave and publicly willing to stand by the right. I’ve seen Kohli lose his cool at questions raised in press conferences, but somehow I feel if I ever cross paths and laid bare an opinion on a flaw that may exist with his game on his face, he will be comfortable listening to it. Regardless of whether he agrees or not. This could be my own delusion, you see. But you get that vibe from a distance, especially now that he’s a significantly calmer and matured human being, stark contrast from a young cricketer who could’ve very well self combusted.
It pained me a lot, then, when I heard him speak in response to the longstanding criticism of his innings pattern and strike-rate against spin in the IPL on Sunday (April 28). I was shocked that Kohli tried using his on-day success versus a Gujarat Titans attack featuring Rashid Khan and Noor Ahmad to invalidate the word on the outside based on a great sample size over five seasons, almost condescendingly suggesting that those who haven’t achieved his body of work have no right to scrutinise his game. It disappointed me no end, for without him realising, he allowed himself to come across overly defensive and insecure. Very unlike the Virat Kohli I’ve come to know, love and respect.
Kohli maybe too stubborn to accept it, but the record indicates of a long persisting and painstaking issue with his T20 game. His strike-rate against spin has been pausing RCB’s innings progression for the last five seasons of the IPL and eventually hurting a franchise that by design requires each of its batting resource to operate at high-end scoring rates to cover for a bowling unit that regularly concedes above par totals. There has been a major dip in his strike-rate versus spin in the T20Is also but since the sample size for T20Is Kohli has played since the pandemic is minimal, we’ll stick our guns only on his IPL record in this piece.
Since the beginning of IPL 2020, Kohli has made his runs against all spinners at a woeful strike-rate of 113.57 over 803 deliveries faced, with a dot-ball percentage as high as 29.9%. Kohli averages 57 per dismissal versus the tweakers but his substandard strike-rate is indicative of a player unable to break free and prolonging his stints in the middle at his team’s expense. In only 16 of his 53 innings has he been dismissed by a spinner since Covid, but oppositions are happy to allow Kohli to bat deep as long as he is stalling RCB’s innings in his current vein. The IPL 2024 is the first time in five IPL seasons that Kohli’s SR versus spin has gone over 130. But 135.70 is still low-key in a tremendously high-scoring tournament, where ‘Impact Player’ ruling has accentuated the beating imposed on shallow attacks on extremely flat pitches and resulted in jaw-dropping scores.
Kohli’s respective strike-rates for IPL 2020, IPL 2021 and IPL 2022 were 108.90, 100.00 and 108.10. While a major portion of matches for the first two editions during the pandemic were played on excessively dry surfaces in UAE, the third iteration was confined to a bio-secure bubble in Maharashtra. All three coincided with a period where Kohli was struggling with form, technical issues and publicly admitted mental health problems. But even when he managed to rejuvenate his game at the onset of IPL 2023 played on flat pitches, Kohli could still only feast off pace and faltered badly versus spin, going at just 112.8 over 211 balls faced against the tweakers, which underlined it as a hole in his game, and not a cause of pitches, the circumstances or the inner demons he was battling previously.
It’s also a misconception that Kohli’s spin decline has occurred at the time where the world isn’t playing spin well. 31 players have aggregated 400 runs or more against spin in the IPL since the 2020 edition, Kohli’s strike-rate of 113.57 is worst than 30 of those, with only Manish Pandey somehow managing to operate at an even lower 113.20. Manish wasn’t a regular pick in those years and perhaps struggled for belief and role-clarity; Kohli is a former captain and an integral part of RCB. Only KL Rahul (66.27) and Jos Buttler (59) are averaging better than Kohli’s 53.65 in this list of players against spin, but Buttler is scoring his runs at 154.25; Rahul a horrific 116.45. Oppositions are fine allowing Rahul and Kohli to bat deep into the innings as long as those two are not upsetting their plans and forcing them to bring back their best pacer, reserved for the death. They wouldn’t be so amused if Buttler sticks around as long.
Buttler’s powerplay strike-rate against spin since IPL 2020 is a tremendous 172.22; Kohli’s a pedestrian 115.20. Oppositions can frontload spin at Kohli with a glee, they dare think along those lines to Buttler, who doesn’t slow down a great deal even in the middle overs (7–16) versus the tweakers and goes at 150.00, in stark contrast to Kohli’s constant slow-go at an even worse rate of 111.50. It’s not a comparison as such, it would unfair to do so, but just to take an overview and understand the kind of scoring rates others have excelled with and indirectly exposed Kohli’s downfall. Even these rates are a jump enabled via a pair of high-scoring seasons from what Kohli was conjuring up during the first three years of the pandemic period, where from a combine of IPL 2020, 2021 and 2022, Kohli’s powerplay strike-rate versus spin stood at 105.13 and went further down to 104.08 in the middle overs.
A jump that maybe attributed to RCB’s brain-tank recognising Kohli’s slow-go versus spin and subsequently cementing his role as an opener while also planting multiple spin hitters around him. Just to ensure that even if Kohli anchors the innings at a below-par strike-rate, RCB doesn’t lose out on runs to meet the opposition eye-to-eye. Five other RCB batters have made 200 or more runs against spin in the first 16 overs of the innings since IPL 2020, all five of them have a better rate of scoring than Kohli’s 107.34. A Rajat Patidar has even excelled in this role, averaging a healthy 35 while retaining a strike-rate of 160.77. Patidar’s hundred in that eliminator game against Lucknow in IPL 2022 was one of the great exhibitions of quality spin hitting. RCB needed him to bat as much as possible with Kohli last year but his injury exposed Kohli’s end in a high-scoring event, where RCB ultimately finished sixth after making the playoffs three successive times.
Kohli may not be willing to acknowledge it, but the record is testament that he is reeling with a major, longstanding and match-losing spin problem. It also suggests he isn’t contributing to RCB’s wins as much as his traditional innings progression and thought process makes him believe. Kohli has been involved in 35 wins in the last five seasons of the IPL. In these games, he has a strike-rate of less than 131 even as the rest of the RCB line-up has contributed their runs at close to 140. In defeats, Kohli has gone at 128.60 with nearly four overs played an innings. He has not been a stand-out contributor to RCB’s victories but significantly responsible for their losses, with an alarming dip of scoring rate to 115.70 against spin in these matches, where a decent portion of his balls faced have come up against the tweakers only, 382 deliveries out of 836. Almost all attacks are designed for more pace overs than spin. Kohli’s spin issues, however, scourge his pace strengths enough for him to make a negative impact.
But I never intended this to be an exercise to reinforce the obvious. Kohli’s sustained decline against spin is a byproduct of a technical problem that has been prevalent with his game in boon and bane. A heavily bottom-handed right-hand player, who mostly plays traditional strokes in front of the wicket, Kohli has held a specific problem against balls coming into him as oppose to those meant to turn away past his outside edge. Numbers reveal an interesting skew where the googly and the arm-ball have haunted him in the middle and accentuated his problem. Kohli has been craving for some width from spinners to play his trademark extra cover drive and be able to access the off-side a lot more.
Since left-arm wristspin is an anomaly and teams refrain from picking right-arm off-spinners in general for the lack of variety these days, let’s filter it down to only the right-arm wristspinners and left-arm fingerspinners for the time being. It won’t dilute the sample size. Against right-arm leg-breakers, Kohli has an overall career IPL strike-rate of 136.7, which has taken a dip to 121.40 in the pandemic years. But that would seem like gold dust if compared with his overall trails against left-arm orthodox spin. Kohli has a disastrous record against left-arm spinners in the IPL since the league’s inception, going at just 113.4 over 104 matches with his 903 runs coming off 805 deliveries, which takes a further beating to a catastrophic 102.20 since IPL 2020 with 319 runs made off 312 balls. Even this year, when he has been prolific, until May 1, Kohli’s SR versus left-arm spin stands at just 108.20.
Teams have now read and recognised this problem too well. Despite more wristspin in operation in T20 cricket in general, attacks have tried to squeeze in that left-arm spinner whenever they’ve played RCB. Just to keep Kohli quiet. Since IPL 2020, teams have bowled nearly 10 balls of an innings of left-arm orthodox at Kohli and eight balls of right-arm legspin at him per innings, trying to deny him space and the width to break free in the middle. A bottom-handed player, who needs to free his hands up to hit either side, Kohli has been handicapped by his own game against the googlies and the arm-ball, both of which come into the right-handers and cramp them for space. In a four-year split since IPL 2021, Kohli has faced a whopping 104 googlies from wristspinners and made just 116 runs while tackling the arm-ball from left-arm spinners 64 times for only 77 runs, giving him poor strike-rates of 111.5 and 120.3 respectively.
Even if we bring in left-arm wristspinners and right-arm off-spinners into the sample, Kohli has faced 38.95% googlies versus all wristspinners and almost 20% of his deliveries against fingerspin community as arm-balls. Overall, there have been 243 balls bowled at Kohli in line with the stumps since IPL 2021, he has scored his runs against those at a strike-rate of 109.05 only. It’s as clear a weakness as day and night. A weakness heightened by Kohli’s default anchoring avatar and his lack of intent to disrupt lengths and lines, including a dire shortage of sweep shots. In an era where most players use the sweep as a method to force shift a spinner’s line and lengths, Kohli has played the sweep just 28 times out of the 601 balls he has faced against all spinners in the last four seasons of the IPL.
Emphasis on post-Covid times maybe suggestive that Kohli’s spin problem is a recent phenomena, but that is a myth in itself, for numbers are revealing of a common theme prevalent even in years where he was at his peak and unleashed his wrath on opposition attacks. Even during the four preceding seasons of the IPL, Kohli scored his runs against all wristspin at just 128.6 over 304 balls faced, including 95 googlies off which he mustered 119 runs. His scoring rate against right-arm off-spinners and left-arm fingerspinners bowling into him was 111.4, which fell to 102.6 when he encountered the arm-ball 38 times out of the 281 balls faced. Back then also Kohli struck his runs against the stump line at just 123.40 and played only 12 sweep shots against 585 deliveries worth of spin.
Even during IPL 2016, supposedly Kohli’s best and most prolific season, he had an overall strike-rate of just 116.90 against fingerspin, even as he ramped home boundaries for fun that year versus wristspinners and went at 194.50. The problem was persistant even in the years where Kohli was at his peak, it’s just that teams have over time multiplied or increased the number of googlies and arm-balls bowled at him. Opposition attacks bowled 22.73% worth of spin in googlies and arm-balls at Kohli between IPL 2017 to IPL 2020. A number that has increased up to 27.95% since, that is almost 30% of all spin bowled at him.
Feeling stagnant at the crease, Kohli has increased his attempts of sweep shots, but that is still a measly jump from 2.05% to 4.65%. Against the Titans that day during his 70* off 44, Kohli attempted the sweep more often and fetched dividends of it. It could just be the surprise factor putting Rashid off and teams maybe better placed to work out plans if he attempted it more frequently. But the knock against Titans should be cue for the great man, at least it would give him some temporary relief against teams who have grown smarter than ever in bowling spin to Kohli and are denying him space to free his arms by targeting the stumps repeatedly from that indecisive length without becoming predictable through varying speeds and trajectories
What should worry Kohli is that despite him visibly upscaling the attacking stroke percentage in the last two years of the IPL, he is still finishing with the strike-rates he used to against spin. A traditionalist in his mould, Kohli with his limited options tries advancing at the ball for a big shot, especially early in the over to upset the bowler’s rhythm and execution. He then tries to maximise his backfoot strengths against the tweakers on the following balls. When this method works, and wristspinners are more prone to conceding ground when attacked under pressure, you get an exceptional hundred like the Asia Cup knock or the brilliant 70* struck in that Titans chase. Fingerspinners, a more pragmatist breed of bowlers operating in defensive lines and lengths in T20, with their arm balls coming into Kohli, are less vulnerable to such ploys.
Like his flaws, Kohli’s spin strength has been equally common through these last eight years, where he continues to enjoy a pretty high balls-per-dismissal count. Kohli shaped up poorly on raging turners India prepared for Tests at home during 2021–23 period, but still averages a decent 34.00 against spinners in this timeframe. In ODIs played since 2020, Kohli even averages 58 versus all tweakers. Innings preservation as a skill is an asset amplified in Tests and ODIs but becomes redundant in T20 cricket if not combined with strike-rates that maximise the impact of your stints in the middle. Kohli is still as solid as ever for RCB, just that his solidity is now a bane on RCB’s innings progression. In Kohli’s head, he is still anchoring a first-innings or a chase as diligently as he did in his pomp and allowing the rest of the pack to flourish, but the fast-progressing game has outgrown him and cast doubts on his purpose to a team he gives his heart and soul to.
Kohli isn’t short of adaptability, or he wouldn’t have evolved from a 19-year-old Delhite facing Chaminda Vaas on debut in Dambulla with his bat-face opening regularly on incoming balls to an unparalleled run-machine of the international game, a Test match great who has conquered all conditions and challenges, including the ‘bowling era’. But those changes were driven by a mind willing to accept a problem. Kohli doesn’t seem willing to accept that his spin game is aching with a wound, in urgent need for bandaging and healing. Or maybe he is aware but putting on a brave face. Stubbornness is a great players’ trait, built over time carving out possibilities and excellence when the world refused to believe. Why, they often overstay their presence and utility. Greatness isn’t achieved without conquering reality, but when profound and extended, it blurs your relationship with truth. Acceptance doesn’t come naturally to such men of honour and legacy. It would be unlike the Virat Kohli I know if it did.
