Kohli to miss Mohali T20I due to personal reasons

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Kohli to miss Mohali T20I due to personal reasons


Virat Kohli will miss the first T20I against Afghanistan in Mohali on Friday. India coach Rahul Dravid confirmed on the eve of the match that Kohli would not be available due to personal reasons and that he would return for the second and third matches of the series in Indore and Bengaluru.

“Virat Kohli will miss the first match due to personal reasons,” Dravid said. “He will play from the second and third T20I.”

The three-match series against Afghanistan is notable because Kohli, and India captain Rohit Sharma, returned to T20Is for the first time since the T20 World Cup semi-final loss to England in November 2022. Both players They took a break from the format in this period to focus on the two longer formats with India playing the final of the World Test Championship and the ODI World Cup in 2023.

“There have been quite a few ICC events in the last two or three years, and many of them back to back,” Dravid said. “So there hasn’t been a lot of time between these ICC events. At various stages, in the last few years that I’ve been here, we have had to prioritize certain formats, certain tournaments, simply because the amount of cricket that is played, and simply When managing players, it is impossible for all players to be playing all the time.

“So we’ve always had to prioritize what’s important, especially for the guys who play all three formats. Even in this series, people like [Jasprit] bumrah, [Ravindra] Jadeja and [Mohammed] Siraj has been missed because considering the five Test matches we have against England. So you’re always doing that juggling act for the last two years.”

The Afghanistan series is India’s last T20I assignment before the T20 World Cup in the West Indies and USA in June, and represents the last opportunity outside the IPL, which is scheduled to run from March 29 to May 26, for players to claim their rights. for the tournament. While Rohit and Kohli have immense experience and knowledge, they could compete with several young batsmen who have come into the Indian team in recent months and have shown immense skill.

“Obviously, for much of last year, and after the last T20 World Cup, we had prioritized the one-day World Cup. There haven’t been many matches after the one-day World Cup for us in terms of the T20 format,” Dravid said. “So this T20 World Cup is slightly different from that perspective, in the sense that there hasn’t been a lot of time to prepare for it. So obviously we have to rely on the cricket we have. And also a little bit on the IPL. “But the boys will play T20 cricket. So they will play here, they will play the IPL. “We may not have many opportunities to play together, so we will have to solve that.”

“You just have to adapt and be flexible. We had a very good preparation before the One-Day World Cup; even before the last T20 World Cup, I thought we had a lot of games together as a group. This time, “We probably won’t and it’s a matter of adapting.” and move forward.”

Dravid also confirmed that Yashasvi Jaiswal would open along with Rohit in Mohali. With Kohli absent, India could move Shubman Gill, who usually opens the batting, to number 3, or field Sanju Samson or Tilak Varma at that position. The top six will look unknown, with the injured Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya also unavailable for the series.