Kohli’s IPL ducks tale: Why multiple dismissals for nought have often hurt his season

RCB superstar Virat Kohli was near stunned connected Thursday nighttime aft Lucknow Super Giants pacer Prince Yadav cleaned him up for a two-ball duck astatine the Ekana Stadium successful Lucknow. It was Kohli’s archetypal duck successful the IPL successful 1110 days and lone the 11th duck of his legendary T20 vocation successful the tournament.The transportation itself rapidly became 1 of the biggest talking points of IPL 2026. Prince bowled a crisp 140.4 kmph shot that jagged backmost viciously done Kohli’s defence earlier crashing into the off-stump. Kohli stood frozen successful disbelief arsenic the young pacer erupted successful celebration.

Some fans and experts adjacent labelled it the “ball of the tournament”.For a batter who has dominated the IPL for astir 2 decades and scored much than 9000 runs, dismissing Kohli for a duck remains 1 of the rarest feats successful franchise cricket.

Kohli’s uncommon ducks successful IPL history

The past clip Kohli was dismissed for nought successful the IPL came successful April 2023, erstwhile Rajasthan Royals pacer Trent Boult trapped him lbw disconnected the precise archetypal ball.Since making his IPL debut successful 2008, Kohli has played 277 matches and scored 9040 runs, including 8 centuries and 66 fifties, astatine an mean of 39.82 and a onslaught complaint of 133.92.Out of his 269 IPL innings, Kohli has been dismissed for a duck lone 11 times — conscionable 4.09 per cent of his innings.

What makes the grounds adjacent much singular is the organisation of those ducks crossed his career. Six of the 11 ducks came successful conscionable 2 hard seasons — 2014 and 2022 — erstwhile Kohli was dismissed for nought 3 times each.That leaves lone 5 ducks dispersed crossed the remaining 17 IPL seasons.Those isolated dismissals came against Mumbai Indians successful 2008, Gujarat Lions successful 2016, Kolkata Knight Riders successful 2017, Rajasthan Royals successful 2023, and present Lucknow Super Giants successful 2026.Virat Kohli's IPL ducks:

Multiple ducks and their interaction connected Kohli’s seasonsInterestingly, the seasons successful which Kohli suffered aggregate ducks besides coincided with noticeable dips successful his wide numbers.In 2014, Kohli registered ducks against Mumbai Indians, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kings XI Punjab. He finished the play with lone 359 runs successful 14 innings astatine an mean of 27.61 and a onslaught complaint of 122.10, scoring conscionable 2 fifties.Then came the hard 2022 season.Kohli endured 1 of the toughest phases of his IPL vocation that year, signaling 3 ducks again — against LSG and doubly against SRH.

His struggles reflected heavy successful his last numbers arsenic helium managed lone 341 runs successful 16 innings astatine an mean of 22.73 and a onslaught complaint of 115.98.It remains 1 of Kohli’s poorest IPL seasons statistically.Kohli's ducks portion chasingKohli’s latest duck besides carried different astonishing statistic.Widely regarded arsenic 1 of the top chasers successful cricket history, the RCB icon registered lone his sixth IPL duck portion batting second. The fig appears somewhat inflated due to the fact that each 3 of his ducks successful the 2014 play came during tally chases. Excluding that antithetic phase, Kohli has seldom failed portion batting second. More remarkably, this was his archetypal duck successful a pursuit since April 2017 — ending a spread of much than 9 years.Despite the setback, Kohli’s IPL 2026 run remains connected track. He has already scored 379 runs successful 10 matches and looks good acceptable for different 600-plus tally play aft crossing that people successful each of the past 3 editions.Virat Kohli's IPL ducks portion chasing: