Former batsman VVS Laxman on Monday said Virat Kohli's poor show with the bat was the most important letdown for the Indian team within the two-Test series against New Zealand which the hosts won on Monday.
Kohli managed just 38 runs in four innings with a highest score of 19 and also suffered his first Test series whitewash as captain as New Zealand won the match in Christchurch by 7 wickets in two and a half days at the Hagley Oval Stadium.
Kohli had also struggled to fireside with the bat within the limited-overs series, managing only one half-century in 8 innings. In total he scored 218 runs from 11 innings on this tour with 51 being his highest score.
His tally of 218 is that the lowest he has managed on a tour where he has played all 3 formats of the game . His last hundred in a foreign match game came against Australia in Perth in December, 2018.
"The biggest point on this tour right from the one-day series to those two Test matches has been the shape of two vital players - Virat Kohli within the batting department and Jasprit Bumrah within the bowling department," Laxman said within the post-match show on Star Sports.
Kohli avaraged just 9.50 within the two Tests which is that the second lowest in his career during a Test series with 2-plus matches and lowest in a foreign assignment in red-ball cricket.
Kohli didn't even manage a 20-plus during this series. His scores in New Zealand Tests read 2, 19, 3, 14.
"Virat Kohli's form has definitely been the most important letdown for the Indian team because when your top batsman, probably the simplest within the world, averages 9 (9.50 to be precise) within the two Test matches, i feel it's getting to be tough for the visiting side. They didn't show any fight within the Tests," Laxman added.
Laxman though, went on to praise Bumrah for returning to make with the ball in Christchurch, after struggling to select up wickets within the first Test in Wellington.
Bumrah had managed just 1 wicket from 2 innings within the first Test but came back strong within the second, picking 5 at the Hagley Oval but the bowlers' efforts went vainly because of the poor performance by the Indian batsmen.
"Bumrah was brilliant (in Christchurch), the consistency with which he bowled those deliveries on the great length was brilliant. He was building the pressure, the wickets column won't do justice to the way he built that pressure on the New Zealand opening batsmen. Bumrah was at his best today," he said.
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