Without any doubt, ODI cricket is Virat Kohli’s best format of the three. The Delhi-born superstar cricketer is hailed as one of the great, if not the greatest, ODI batters of all time.
With 12898 in 265 ODI innings, Virat Kohli is the 5th all-time leading run-scorer in ODIs, while his average of 57 is much highest than the four batters above him in the run-scorers list. His tally of 46 ODI centuries is only second to Sachin Tendulkar’s 49 ODI tons.
A few bowlers, though, have had some wood over Virat Kohli in this format.
Here are 5 bowlers who have troubled Virat Kohli in ODIs:
Tim Southee and Ravi Rampaul
Veteran New Zealand pacer Tim Southee has dismissed Virat Kohli 6 times in ODIs, the joint-most for any bowler in this format, tied with West Indies’ former seamer Ravi Rampaul.
While Southee dismissed Kohli 6 times in 20 innings, Rampaul has the same number of wickets of Kohli in 12 innings, although Rampaul bowled mostly to Kohli in the first half of Kohli’s career from 2011 to 2014, while Southee is still an active international bowler and has faced Kohli at the batter’s peak as well.
Thisara Perera, Adam Zampa, Shakib Al Hasan
Former Sri Lanka pacer Thisara Perera, Australian leg-spinner Adam Zampa, and Bangladesh left-arm spinner Shakib Al Hasan – all three have dismissed Virat Kohli three times in their ODI careers so far. Out of these three Shakib Al Hasan has the best dismissal per match ratio of 2.8, while Rampaul got rid of Kohli once every two ODI innings they faced each other.
Special mention: Josh Hazlewood, Jhye Richardson, Mitchell Santner
Also, a special mention here is for Hazlewood and Richardson, who have dismissed Kohli 4 times each is only 7 and 6 matches respectively they have faced each other with a dismissal per match ratio of only 1.7 and 1.5 respectively.
Also a bowler against whom Virat Kohli has found it really difficult to score is New Zealand’s left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner, who has dismissed Kohli thrice and has a stunning average of only 9.33 despite bowling in over a dozen matches to Kohli at his best era.
