With the Indian star, Virat Kohli flying back to Mumbai a few days before for a personal emergency, the BCCI has revealed that the player will be available for the warm-up games to be played against the Netherlands.
Virat Kohli’s availability for warm-up games
India is scheduled to play the second and final match of their warm-up games against the Netherlands on October 3 at Greenfield Stadium, Thiruvananthapuram. The Indian squad arrived at Trivandrum domestic airport on October 1. They directly headed to Kerala from Guwahati to play their final warmup games.
Virat Kohli who flew back to Mumbai is yet to join the squad on Thiruvananthapuram. With the availability of the player for the games said to be unclear, the BCCI revealed that the player will be available for the match saying, “He (Virat Kohli) will be arriving soon and should be available for selection in tomorrow’s game.”
On this occasion, former Pakistan pacer Mohammad Amir revealed that he is a huge fan of Kohli. He recalled the moments when Kohli had an unbeaten 82 runs knock against Pakistan in last year’s T20 World Cup and acknowledged him as a fearless batter despite of any situation.
He said, “The word ‘pressure’ is not there in Virat’s cricketing dictionary. If you ask Virat, he will surely say that that knock vs. Pakistan (T20 World Cup 2022) was the best innings of his life.
“Virat will be a dangerman for every team in the World Cup. He is in top and red-hot form. His confidence is at another level at the moment.”
The Indian team had a training session at the KCA-St. Xavier’s College Cricket Ground on Monday. The players KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav and Mohammed Siraj had a practice session for about two and half hours.
The first warmup game for India scheduled to play against England was washed out due to rain on September 30. The two matches played in Greenfield have been canceled due to rain. With the weather improving, the cricket world expects Tuesday’s match will be played without too many interruptions.
The match between South Africa and New Zealand at Greenfield stadium was interrupted by rain and played a total of 87 overs where New Zealand won by 7 runs using the DLS method.
Fans are expecting Virat Kohli’s availability for the match against the Netherlands. After the game, the team will be heading towards Chennai for their World Cup opener match against Australia on October 8.
Rohit Sharma will be traveling to Ahmedabad for the customary pre-World Cup Captains Day event. With the World Cup 2023 set to begin on October 5, defending champions England and New Zealand will be playing in the inaugural match of the tournament at Narendra Modi Stadium.
