India’s Kohli to miss T20 opener against Afghanistan

AFP | Mohali

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Star India batsman Virat Kohli will miss the first of three Twenty20 internationals against Afghanistan due to “personal reasons”, coach Rahul Dravid said yesterday.

Kohli and skipper Rohit Sharma both returned to the T20 squad after more than a year’s absence for the series starting Thursday in Mohali, as the teams prepare for the T20 World Cup in June.

“Virat Kohli will miss the first game due to personal reasons,” Dravid said at a press conference. “He will be playing from the second and third T20.”

Kohli and Rohit last played a T20 international in November 2022, when India lost to England in the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup in Australia.

Dravid said Rohit and the left-handed Yashasvi Jaiswal remain as the team’s firstchoice openers in the T20 format. “As of now, we will be certainly opening with Rohit and Jaiswal,” Dravid said when asked if Kohli could open with Rohit.

“But when you have a squad, you have to have that flexibility to do whatever is required if that is in the best interest of the team and gives us the best chance to succeed.

“So nothing is closed. But certainly, we’re really happy with what Jaiswal has done as an opener for us, and he gives us a left-right combination as well at the top.”

Jaiswal, 22, made the Indian team after a stellar show in the Indian Premier league last year when he scored 625 runs at a destructive strike-rate of 163.61.