With his spot never in doubt for the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy 2025 in Pakistan (and UAE for India), Virat Kohli’s form was once again the talk of the town as India were put in to bat on a slow Ahmedabad pitch by England in the final game of the three-match ODI series.
A dead rubber, with the series already sealed by India with their win in Cuttack, this game was meant to serve as a warm-up opportunity for both teams, giving their best batters and bowlers those final extra minutes in the middle. The setting was ideal for the King to sharpen his blade and end the constant scrutiny.
India, who looked far more settled than their opposition heading into this final outing before the Champions Trophy, had just one missing piece — their best limited-over batter finally finding his footing. And the onus was on Kohli to take a leaf out of Rohit Sharma’s playbook and pull off a timely knock to put the icing on the cake for a team whose top order had collectively been among the runs in the series.
However, England’s famed leg-spinner was once again on hand to play spoilsport at the King’s party. Kohli, who was finally starting to look confident in his shot-making, was caught lunging for a leg-break from Adil Rashid, getting out after scoring his 73rd half-century in ODIs.
At this point, no other bowler has Kohli on his dial like Rashid. Dismissing Kohli for the 11th time in international cricket — the most by any bowler — Rashid now has five of those wickets in the 50-over format. Only two other bowlers — New Zealand’s Tim Southee and Australia’s Josh Hazlewood — have dismissed Kohli as many times across all formats.
Kohli continues to struggle against balls moving away, whether against pace or spin, and in Ahmedabad, the batter was lured into playing a flighted delivery that pitched on middle and leg. The drifting ball took a sharp turn, catching the outside edge before being gathered cleanly by keeper Phil Salt. In the second ODI in Cuttack, Kohli suffered the same fate — caught behind defending a delivery moving away from Rashid.
In fact, within the first two balls of his spell in this match, Rashid had Kohli trapped in his crease, only for the ball to pitch outside leg by millimeters.
Ever since the ODI World Cup in 2023, Kohli hasn’t been in the best of form, and this series against England was supposed to be his stepping stone to regaining rhythm and setting the tone for the Champions Trophy.
Now, even though his struggles against leg spin and seaming deliveries moving away remain evident, Kohli looked confident in his shots, scoring 52 runs off 55 balls with seven fours and one six. But India’s opponents in the Champions Trophy group stage — Bangladesh, New Zealand and Pakistan — will likely be taking note of this weakness, each having at least one spinner whose primary task will be to turn the ball away from him.
Rashid, on the other hand, ended with best-ever figures of 4 for 64 in India with the crucial wickets of Kohli, Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer and Hardik Pandya.
India 356 all out in 50 ovs (Gill 112, Iyer 78, Kohli 52; Rashid 4/64, Wood 2/45) vs England.
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