Virat Kohli has rejoined the Indian cricket team to begin preparations for the first Test against South Africa on December 26. The star India batter was in London for the past few days and it wasn’t a sudden trip due to a “family emergency”.
It has been reliably learnt that both the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the Indian team management were aware of Kohli’s travel plans and he was never going to play the inter-squad game in Pretoria from December 20 to December 22.
“Virat Kohli wasn’t going to play that game. The team management was aware of his plan and schedule, and it isn’t something which happened overnight or due to a family emergency. Look at the player in question, it’s Virat Kohli. He is very well planned when it comes to these things and his London trip was communicated and planned well in advance,” says a senior BCCI official.
Kohli trained with the side for three days before travelling to London from South Africa and has now rejoined the group ahead of the Boxing Day Test. The former India skipper left for South Africa from India on December 15, he was with the team for the next three days and left for London on December 19.
“Kohli left India for South Africa on December 15. Had good 3-4 training sessions before he went to London on December 19. For the next few days, he was in London and has now linked up with the Test squad and will in all likelihood train in Centurion tomorrow,” adds the official.
The Rohit Sharma-led Indian team will have a morning training session on December 24 and an afternoon session on December 25 before the opening Test of the two-match series. The side will then leave for Cape Town on December 31 and start preparations for the second Test which begins on January 3 at Newlands.
India will be without the services of Mohammed Shami, Ishan Kishan and Ruturaj Gaikwad for the series. Shami’s participation was subject to fitness and the seamer didn’t get clearance from the BCCI Medical Team. Kishan was withdrawn from the squad after the young stumper requested a break and Gaikwad was ruled out due to a finger injury he sustained during the second ODI against South Africa.
While no replacement was named for Shami, KS Bharat and Abhimanyu Easwaran have replaced Kishan and Gaikwad respectively in India’s Test squad. There were some changes in India ‘A’ squad for the game against South Africa ‘A’ from December 26 too as Harshit Rana was ruled out due to injury, Kuldeep Yadav was released and Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraz Khan, Avesh Khan and Rinku Singh were added.
India Updated Test Squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Prasidh Krishna, KS Bharat (wk), Abhimanyu Easwaran.
India A’s updated squad for four-day match against SA A: Abhimanyu Easwaran (C), Sai Sudharsan, Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraz Khan, Tilak Varma, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Avesh Khan, Navdeep Saini, Akash Deep, Vidhwath Kaverappa, Manav Suthar, Rinku Singh
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