Virat Kohli disappoints fans with second consecutive duck in India vs Australia 2nd ODI; fans say ‘the King is rusty’

India vs Australia 2nd ODI: Virat Kohli disappointed fans once again as the former Indian captain was dismissed for a duck in the second India vs Australia ODI in Adelaide, Australia, on Thursday. After falling for an eight-ball duck in the first ODI in Perth, the right-hander lasted just four deliveries before Xavier Bartlett trapped him leg-before without scoring.

This is the first time in Virat Kohli's ODI career that he has been dismissed for successive ducks. Coming into bat after the fall of captain Shubman Gill in the seventh over, Kohli spent just four balls in the middle. The ball nipped back at Kohli, who tried to flick, missed the line completely and was caught plumb in front.

Umpire Sam Nogajski had little hesitation before raising his finger. The 26-year-old had a chat with Rohit Sharma before walking back, shaking his head. He acknowledged the crowd by raising his gloves. The last time Kohli recorded back-to-back ducks was in a Test and T20I against England in Ahmedabad in 2021.

This was Kohli's 40th duck in international cricket and his second in Australia in ODIs. Only former pacer Zaheer Khan has more ducks for India - 43. Kohli has not played competitive cricket since the Indian Premier League (IPL 2025) final on 3 July.

Since then, Kohli has been residing in the United Kingdom with his family, maintaining training and fitness, but missing match practice, which is proving to be the missing link in his games.

India have one more ODI left in the series.

Kohli's consecutive ducks haven't gone down well with fans.

On X, a user wrote: “Virat Kohli after seeing Mitchell Starc deliver a ball outside off-stump on his comeback: 'Ah, this is the feeling I missed the most! Must play! 0 off 8 balls is vintage comeback. The King is rusty, but the outside-off vulnerability is polished [sic]!”

"Unfortunate for Virat Kohli, dismissed for a 4-ball duck. Back-to-back ducks now - time for a strong comeback!" said another.

“Lack of match practice is clearly visible,” commented one user.

Earlier, Shubman Gill once again lost the toss as Australia opted to field first. While the Indian team went unchanged, Australia made three changes, bringing in Alex Carey, Adam Zampa and Xavier Bartlett in place of Josh Philippe, Matthew Kuhnemann and Nathan Ellis, respectively.

India vs Australia 2nd ODI playing XIs

India: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill(c), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, KL Rahul(w), Washington Sundar, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj

Australia: Mitchell Marsh(c), Travis Head, Matthew Short, Matt Renshaw, Alex Carey(w), Cooper Connolly, Mitchell Owen, Xavier Bartlett, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood