Virat Kohli set to miss 1st T20I against Afghanistan due to personal reasons

Virat Kohli will likely miss the first T20I vs. Afghanistan due to personal reasons. India’s coach Rahul Dravid confirms the news that India will play the first match without Virat. Rohit Sharma-led Indian team is all set to play their first match against Afghanistan in Mohali on January 11. Moreover, Virat will be available for the second T20 match. Rohit and Virat had played their last T20 match 14 months ago. The fans along with the team certainly missed the dynamic duo in these months. 

After the T20 World Cup 2022, the Legends had not played any T20 match for the longest time. The series against Afghanistan is the last series for India before the T20 World Cup starts. After this, the players will play a Test series against England and from there they will directly play the IPL. 

If we talk about the Afghanistan series, India has a pretty good record against them, winning the series shouldn’t be a challenging task for them. The team has young talented players like Tilak Verma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and Avesh Khan, who will give their best throughout the series. However, the visiting team also has some good experienced players in the form of Naveen-ul-Haq and the captain Ibrahim Zadran. If the weather and pitches are good, the series will turn out to be interesting. 

‘You just have to adapt and be flexible’ – says Rahul Dravid

As the T20 World Cup is coming, Rahul Dravid talks about the challenges the team might face during the World Cup. He mentioned that the Indian team gave much importance to the ODI World Cup and hence, they have played very less T20 matches. However, as they enter into a period of IPL, the players will get enough T20 exposure before the World Cup kicks in.

Dravid said, “Obviously, for the large part of the last year, and after the last T20 World Cup, we had prioritised the one-day World Cup. There has not been a lot of games after the one-day World Cup for us in terms of the T20 format.”