Virat Kohli is baring the brunt of the fallout from India’s first Test series loss at home in 12 years.

The former captain is in the midst of a torrid time with the bat in the game’s longest form, and Indians fans have been quick to turn on their demigod with many on social media calling for him to retire.

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No former players, nor any members of the press, have gone that far but they have raised their concerns.

In the first innings of the second Test against New Zealand, Kohli was a bowled by a low full toss from left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner – who also dismissed Kohli lbw in the second innings as he collected 13 wickets for the match.

The soon to be 36-year-old swiped across the line and missed the ball by a long way, and it was called the “worst shot of his career” by former Indian player turned broadcaster Sanjay Manjrekar.

It was a shot more likely to be seen in the local fourth XI on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon than from a modern great, but it was symbolic of Kohli’s rut against the red ball.

He has scored just 88 runs in his four innings in the series so far, 70 of which came in the second innings of the first Test in Bengaluru.

Kohli is not alone however as Indian skipper Rohit Sharma’s numbers are even worse.

He’s managed to contribute only 62 runs against the Black Caps so far, including a half-century also in the second innings of Bengaluru.

The struggles of India’s leaders led cricket writer for The Courier Mail and Code Sports, Robert Craddock, to declare that we are witnessing two of the game’s finest limp to the finish line.

“There’s no doubt Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are in decline, they are not the batsman they were,” Craddock said.

“Kohli missed a full toss in the first innings (against New Zealand), it was embarrassing stuff.

“Their batsman, because they play so much T20 cricket, they struggle to hold onto the rhythms of a probing Test match.”

The irony of that comment is that Kohli has regularly copped flak in India in recent years for his strike rate not being high enough in T20s.

He successfully pushed back against the naysayers in the shortest format by being player of the match in India’s T20 World Cup final victory earlier this year with 76 off 59 balls, as well producing unforgettable innings like his 82 not out off 53 balls to beat rivals Pakistan at the MCG in the 2022 T20 World Cup group stage.

Now the script has flipped as he is being criticised for not preserving his red ball game.

Kohli retired from T20 internationals after the T20 World Cup triumph to focus more on the other two formats.

But despite freeing up his schedule, he opted not to play domestic cricket to prepare for the current Test matches, and that decision has shined the spotlight brighter on his diminishing Test returns.

Former Indian opener Aakash Chopra laid Kohli’s recent numbers bare on his YouTube channel.

“Is Virat Kohli’s Test form a concern? He has scored only two centuries in the last five years,” Chopra said.

“It’s a concern if you see his numbers for the last five years and that was before the start of this Test match. He played only six innings in 2020 and had an average of 19. He played 19 innings in 2021 but had an average of 28, with no century.

“In 2022, he played 11 innings, again an average of 26, with no century. He did score two centuries in 2023 for sure, the average jumped to 55, but let’s also remember that one century came in a drawn game on a flat pitch in Ahmedabad.

“You won’t rate that too much. This year as well, he was going at an average of 32 in eight innings and now this Test match has also passed.”

The century in Ahmedabad – Kohli scored 186 – came against Australia last year in the final Test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy.

Australia famously won the previous match in Indore on a rank turner that made the game a spinning shootout.

India led 2-1 – which was the eventual series result – heading to the final match and there were reports that India’s batters, including Kohli, had complained about the excessiveness of the turning pitches in the series.

So to ensure Australia could not level the series, and the Indian batters could fill their boots, a strip of highway was rolled out in the middle of the mammoth stadium which also hosted Australia’s historic win in last year’s World Cup final.

The reports at the time revealed that Kohli was concerned by what the numbers were showing.

Spinners have got him trapped in a web.

Before the start of India’s 2-0 series win against Bangladesh at home last month – a series in which he made scores of 6, 17, 47 and 29 not out – Kohli’s average against right-arm off-spin since 2020 was 34.8 and against left-arm spin it was just 25.1.

Those figures have only gotten worse in his last four Test outings, and they are a huge drop off from his golden days when he spanked spinners around Indian grounds with ease.

From 2015 to 2019, Kohli averaged 76.3 against right-arm off spin and 126.8 against left-arm spin at home.

He ate them for breakfast.

India have produced even more spin-friendly pitches in recent years which has not helped his cause – before 2021 India’s top-five averaged 64.1 against spin at home, and since that number has almost halved to 36.8 and it would have lowered further from the Bangladesh and New Zealand series.

But Kohli’s drop off has been the most confronting of any Indian batter.

Cricket writer for Indian newspaper the Hindustan Times, Aditya Bhattacharya, said that watching Kohli at the crease “has become more frustrating than anything else”.

“It’s hard to believe this is the same player who, not long ago, seemed nearly indestructible,” he said.

“Call it a metamorphosis or whatever term pundits prefer, the fact remains that, aside from occasional flashes of brilliance, Kohli’s struggles against spin and on Indian pitches have persisted far too long.

“For a player of his calibre, Kohli, who in his pomp, used to tear the house down and smash one record after another, it’s painful to watch him go through his current ordeal.

“Not taking DRS when there’s bat involved, missing the regulation full toss, getting out to numerous LBWs, Kohli is in complete shambles, something even his most ardent fans would admit.”

You must never write off a champion however and Kohli will be ecstatic about coming to Australia.

Pat Cummins’ side have many scars from days in the dirt, chasing leather, as Kohli pummelled pull shots or punched on the up through the gap between cover and mid-off for fun.

His average in Australia is a remarkable 54.08 and he boasts six centuries in 13 Test matches on Australian soil.

In comparison, Sachin Tendulkar scored the same amount of hundreds in 20 Test matches in Australia at a slightly lower average of 53.20.

Kohli has always enjoyed the pace and bounce in Australia and the playing more of horizontal bat shots which goes with – just watch the viral video from 2018 of him in the Adelaide nets where it sounds like a gun shot every time bat met ball to see why.

But this is likely to be the last time Australian fans watch Kohli live in the flesh in Test cricket.

It will be a fascinating battle.

The Australian quicks know one of the best ways to get him out is to get him pushing outside off stump early in his innings to bring the outside edge into play.

Nathan Lyon meanwhile will be licking his lips at the numbers above, but will not be taking him lightly.

A clash between the world’s two leading Test nations is exactly the kind of stage Kohli likes to perform on.

He desperately needs to rediscover the form that has made him a ruthless run scoring machine for so long as all cricket fans will be hoping that his greatest hits are on show this summer, rather than watching a legend battling to the end.