There hasn’t been any batsman in the last decade or so who has scored runs as consistently as the Indian captain Virat Kohli across all formats of the game.
Virat Kohli has not just piled on the runs in Indian conditions; he has done that all over the world and has not shown any apparent weakness against any type of bowling. However, a few bowlers have dismissed Kohli on more occasions than the others.
Here are the 5 bowlers who have dismissed Kohli the most no. of times:
James Anderson (8 times)
Anderson has managed to get the better of Kohli a total of 8 times in international cricket, 5 times in Test cricket and thrice in One Day Internationals.
When Kohli played Test cricket in England for the first time in 2014, he couldn’t quite adapt to the English conditions and the duke ball as quickly as he would have liked to. Most of his dismissals against Anderson came in that series.
Graeme Swann (8 times)
Graeme Swann was another bowler who sent Kohli to the pavilion 8 times, 4 times in Test cricket and 4 times in ODIs.
Kohli is generally a wonderful player of spin. Not only is he a good driver of the ball, but he can also rock back and play good back-foot shots against spinners as well.
So, it’s a little surprising that he lost his wicket to Swann so many times. However, Swann was a quality spinner and Kohli was definitely not the only batsman he troubled during his career.
Nathan Lyon (7 times)
Since Nathan Lyon doesn’t play a lot of limited-overs cricket for Australia, he hasn’t often had the opportunity to bowl to Kohli in ODI and T20I cricket.
But in Test cricket, Lyon has got Kohli out 7 times. The extra bounce that Lyon gets, because of the top-spin he imparts on the ball, has helped him outfox Kohli on a few occasions.
Morne Morkel (7 times)
Playing Morne Morkel on bouncy pitches has never been easy for any batsman ever because of his height and his high arm action.
Morkel used to get a little bit of extra zip from the good length area and used to catch the batsman in no man’s land, neither forward nor back.
Morkel got Kohli’s wicket 4 times in Test cricket and thrice in ODIs.
Tim Southee (7 times)
Southee is also a bit like Anderson in terms of the away swing that he gets with the new ball.
The New Zealander doesn’t bowl quite as full as Anderson all the time, but the shape that he gets away from the right-handers has troubled Kohli in both red-ball and white-ball cricket.
Southee has dismissed Kohli 5 times in ODIs and twice in Test cricket.
