Virat Kohli and other India stars to miss Afghanistan Test due to county commitments

Sport360 staff 18:06 25/03/2018
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  • Four India players will miss the Afghanistan Test.

    Virat Kohli and many of India‘s Test specialists will miss Afghanistan’s inaugural Test in June due to their commitments in the county circuit, the court appointed BCCI’s Committee of Administrators (CoA) chief Vinod Rai has said.

    It was reported on Saturday that the India skipper was set to join county outfit Surrey after finishing his engagements in the Indian Premier League (IPL). India are set to tour England for five Tests, three ODIs and as many T20Is this summer and Kohli’s decision to join Surrey is seen as an attempt to improve his record in England where he averages a dismal 13.40.

    “Virat Kohli will be playing for the top English county side Surrey in the month of June,” Rai is quoted as saying by the PTI.

    “The BCCI has allowed him to fully focus on the England Test series along with Cheteshwar Pujara (Yorkshire), Ravichandran Ashwin (Warwickshire) and Ishant Sharma (Sussex). Virat will miss the Test match against Afghanistan in Bengaluru from June 14-18.

    “The decision has been taken in consultation with the players as we felt after the South Africa series, our Test team needs more time to acclimatise before the England Test series. The BCCI were in talks with the various counties as we wanted our main players to get county exposure.”

    Along with the four players who will play county cricket, a few other senior team members will also to travel to England early as part of the Rahul Dravid-coached India A team.

    “There will be a few seniors among Test specialists who will leave for England in early June along with Rahul’s India A team. I can’t say how many. Anything between two to four senior team players will be there from start of A tour. A few will play the Afghanistan Test match and then leave for England. But yes, at least seven to eight players, who are all Test team specialists will be in England in June,” Rai said.

    Earlier, Surrey’s director of cricket Alec Stewart had confirmed the outfit’s interest in securing the services of Kohli.

    “I did inquire a while back about Kohli when it appeared to be a possible option for him to play county cricket but was told by the BCCI that India were playing Ireland in T20s and an inaugural Test v Afghanistan in June,” said Stewart. “If he does now become available we would look at it again to see if it could potentially work around our current overseas arrangements,” Stewart told the Guardian on Saturday.

    Kohli will become the first Indian player to play for the south London club if he signs up for them.

    India’s tour of England starts with a T20 on July 3.

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