India’s talismanic batter Virat Kohli had to reportedly fly back to Mumbai from Guwahati because of reported ‘personal emergency’ while the rest of the Indian squad arrived in Trivandrum for their second warm-up game against the Netherlands. Though the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) hasn’t given any confirmed if Kohli will miss the warm-up game, a report claims that the star batter will return in time for the Netherlands clash and join his teammates on October 02.
Kohli remains one of the pillars in the Indian team. Though the Netherlands warm-up game isn’t of absolute importance, the batter would want to get some runs under his belt considering the last match against England was abandoned due to rain.
“A source from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) confirmed that he went to Mumbai for personal reasons. Virat will rejoin the team soon,” Cricbuzz quoted a source as saying.
It isn’t yet known what the personal emergency is but the expectations are that Virat would be back with the team in time.
Kohli only featured for India in one of the three ODIs against Australia in a recently-concluded series. The batter showed form in the 3rd ODI, scoring 56 runs although the Indian team suffered defeat in the contest.
Kohli didn’t enjoy the best of phase in his cricketing career over the last 3 years. But, the year 2023 saw him return to his best. The batter has been scoring runs for fun once again, in time for the ODI World Cup campaign
“The last two and a half years have taught me a lot. Those angry celebrations are a thing of the past. I have had many suggestions, lots of advice has come my way; people were telling me I was doing this wrong, that wrong,” Kohli said, as per ICC.
“I picked out all the videos from the best time I had, same initial movement, same approach towards the ball and it was just what was happening inside my head, I wasn’t able to explain it to anyone,” he added.
In the upcoming Cricket World Cup, Kohli could go on to cement his place in history by breaking a few more all-time records.