Virat Kohli Likely To Miss Test Against Afghanistan, To Play County To Prepare For England Tour

If Virat Kohli gets inducted into the Surrey county team then he will become the first Indian cricketer to play for this side

By: Aakash Biswas |
March 24, 2018 2:22 pm

Virat Kohli has undoubtedly become the current cricket fandom’s favourite run-machine. However, the English pitches still remain an unsolved puzzle for the young Indian captain. In India’s last visit to England in 2014, Kohli scored a total of 134 runs at a dismal average of 13.40. After four years, Team India will be touring England for another bilateral series and the clash between both the sides is expected to be tougher than the previous encounter. Hence, Kohli has decided to play county cricket for Surrey ahead of the first India vs England Test scheduled on August 1, 2018.

According to a TOI report, Kohli is expected to miss the one-off Test against Afghanistan starting from June 14 at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru. During that period, Kohli will be part of the Surrey county team for three four-day matches against Hampshire, Somerset and Yorkshire.

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On the other hand, another report by the news agency PTI has quoted a senior BCCI official saying,

“Virat (Kohli) will be playing for a division one county side for sure. I wouldn’t like to add anything more to it. There were talks with Surrey and Essex.”

If Kohli gets inducted into the Surrey county team then he will become the first Indian cricketer to play for this side.

Meanwhile, it has also been learned from the TOI report that Indian Test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara is likely to reunite with Yorkshire during that period. If that happens, then Kohli and Pujara might play against each other.

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After having a phenomenal home season in the recent past, Virat Kohli & Co are scheduled to tour to other countries this year. They started their 2019’s cricket schedule with the tour to South Africa where they lost the Test series 2-1 after winning 9 series in a row.

Though they made a terrific comeback in the limited-overs series, their potential in Tests on away grounds are yet to be tested. The tour of England comprises five Tests, three ODIs and three T20Is after which the Indian team will tour Australia.