India lost the fourth ODI against New Zealand on Thursday, 31 January, with 212 balls to spare, the team’s worst-ever One-Day defeat in terms of balls remaining.
It was also India’s first loss during their tour of New Zealand. A game that was played without Virat Kohli.
The skipper has been rested for the last two ODIs and three T20s against the Kiwis with the Team Management and the Selectors 'considering his workload’ ahead of the home One-Day series against Australia starting later this month.
This is, however, not the first time in the last year that the 30-year-old has been allowed to skip a scheduled series. Virat missed an entire tri-series in Sri Lanka in March 2018, the one-off Test against Afghanistan, the Asia Cup in September and the T20 series against the Windies at home in November.
He, however, did play the entire two months of the IPL.
While the Indian skipper’s decision to miss international cricket but still play the franchise-based IPL can be debated, the fact remains that Virat Kohli is the only senior Indian cricketer who plays all three formats of the game. So, even though he missed out on a handful of matches last year, Virat Kohli has still only played 5 matches less than Shikhar Dhawan – India’s ‘busiest’ cricketer since 1 January 2018.
The number that stands out from the year that Virat’s had is 3,059 – the runs he’s scored since 1 January 2018. More than any cricketer, not only from India but from across the world.
Pakistan captain Sarfaraz Ahmed, in fact, is the international cricketer to have played the most matches in the time period, but he has scored only 1,095 runs while Virat, in his 44 outings, has smashed 3,059 runs, a haul that helped him win the top honours of ‘ICC Cricketer of the Year’.
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