Former Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and South Africa national cricket team star batsman AB de Villiers has provided a big hint about modern batting great Virat Kohli’s return to action.
Kohli was last seen in action in competitive cricket when he caught a duck in a T20I match against the Afghanistan National Cricket Team at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on January 17, 2024.
He has since been out of competitive cricket. Kohli withdrew his name from the Indian team for the first two Tests of the five-match series against the England national cricket team and he was expected to return for the rest of the series.
However, he was also not available for the last three tests. The reason behind Kohli’s absence from cricket was originally revealed by his best friend AB de Villiers and later, the batsman himself revealed the reason why he took a long time away from his favorite format of cricket.
Kohli and his wife Anushka Sharma took to social media platforms on February 20 to announce that they have been blessed with a baby boy, whom they named Akaay.
As Virat Kohli missed the Test series against the England national cricket team due to the birth of his second child, legendary batsman Sunil Gavaskar expressed doubts about the batsman’s participation in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024.
“He will play… He won’t play for some reason, maybe he won’t play in IPL too,” Gavaskar said during a marquee sporting event at the Indian Institute of Management, Ranchi, last month.
Virat Kohli has hinted that he may want me to go – AB de Villiers
Speaking on his YouTube channel, legendary Proteas batsman AB de Villiers quashed Gavaskar’s comment and gave a hint about Kohli’s return while answering whether he plans to return to Bengaluru to support the RCB franchise. De Villiers stated that Kohli invited him to spend some time with him in Bengaluru, which gives a clear hint that the former RCB captain plans to return until IPL 2024.
“There is nothing confirmed yet,” de Villiers said about his return to RCB. “Virat Kohli has hinted that he might want me to go just to spend a bit of time with him and maybe some of the batsman. I think the call has to come from Andy Flower, Faf and the team. But for now, I will only be in Mumbai for the first few weeks of the IPL and will do some commentary, so watch our live streams. I will also return to the backend for the knockouts.”
Virat Kohli had an excellent run with the bat in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 as he scored 639 runs in 14 matches at an astonishing average of 53.25 and a strike rate of 139.82. He also hit 2 hundreds and 6 fifties in the 2023 edition of the competition.
The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 will begin on March 22 and defending champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) will take on Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in Chennai in the opening clash.