Big runs in vain, age old story

MUMBAI: With India conceding another away series in England, Virat Kohli’s captaincy has drawn flak from a section of former cricketers including Sunil Gavaskar. However, when it comes to Kohli’s batting in the ongoing series, even his most fierce critic would find it hard to take a potshot at him. Though India are going into The Oval Test 3-1 down, on a personal front, Kohli has more than exorcised the demons of the 2014 tour (when he scored only 134 runs at an average of 13.40) by amassing 544 runs at an average of 68, including two centuries. That is more than double of what the second highest-scorer of the series, Jos Buttler (260 runs), has managed. In terms of average too, Kohli is the only Indian batsman to have a 50-plus mark in the series so far.

But despite the India captain’s heroics, his team failed to galvanise the resources leading to yet another away series loss. There have been a few other instances of batsmen from losing teams enjoying such dominance. Only seven out of the top-50 individual run tallies have come in losing efforts with former West Indies batsman Clyde Walcott’s total of 827 runs during his team’s 3-0 drubbing against Australia in 1955 being the best. Brian Lara’s 688 runs during West Indies’ 3-0 rout in Sri Lanka in 2001-02 is the most notable chart-topping effort in the 21st century that went in vain.

Kohli waging a long battle in the ongoing series is reminiscent of Rahul Dravid’s performance in the same country seven years ago. During India’s tour of England in 2011, the visitors lost all four Tests but Dravid accumulated 461 runs with the help of three centuries at an average of 76.83. But unlike Kohli, Dravid didn’t top the series run chart as Kevin Pietersen and Ian Bell amassed more than 500 runs.

Kohli’s effort has already put him in second spot on the list of Indian batsmen who topped run tallies in series defeats. He is behind the gritty Mohinder Amarnath, who had scored 598 runs at an average of 66.44 during India’s 2-0 defeat in a five-match series in the West Indies in 1982-83. Amarnath’s tally had 191 runs more than second-placed West Indies skipper Clive Lloyd (407) in the series.

With one Test to go, Kohli requires only 55 runs to go past Amarnath’s mark.

Among other Indians who topped run charts in series defeats are — Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar. While Gavaskar topped charts twice (first in England in 1979 and second in the West Indies in 1983-84), Tendulkar did it during India’s tour of Australia in 2007-08.

If the criterion of topping run charts in a series defeat is taken out of the equation, Kohli figures right at the top among Indian batsmen with the best tally in a losing effort. During India’s tour of Australia in 2014-15, Kohli had piled on 692 runs at an average of 86.50 but finished behind then Australia skipper Steve Smith, who amassed 769 runs at an astronomical average of 128.16.

Amarnath appears twice in the top-five list with his aforementioned 598-runs being followed by a 584-run effort against arch-rivals Pakistan during a 3-0 defeat in a six-Test series.

But when it comes to the highest ever run tally in a series, the record still belongs to the great Don Bradman, who churned out a mind-boggling 974 runs at an average of 139.14 in England during the 1930 Ashes series.