Star batter Virat Kohli has finally arrived in India to join his teammates at Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) ahead of the upcoming season of Indian Premier League (IPL).
While most of his teammates have already checked in Bengaluru earlier this week, Kohli was the most high-profile face, who did not show up, creating a buzz over his availability for RCB in IPL 2024. It is understood, Kohli was with his family in the United Kingdom. Recently, he became a father for the second time in February.
Kohli last played for India in the third T20I against Afghanistan exactly two months ago (January 17) in Bengaluru. Post that, the former RCB skipper withdrew from the first two Tests against England citing personal reasons. Although the exact reason of his withdrawal wasn’t known at that time, it was a social media from his wife Anushka Sharma that cleared the picture.
The duo welcomed a baby boy named Akaay on February 15, Anushka shared on social media. Eventually, Kohli decided to be by his family at that point in time, and decided not to play in the rest of the series all well, which in turn helped the Indian team management to unearth quite a few talents.
Unlike all the teams who have started their training with little less than a week left for IPL 2024 to kick-off, RCB are yet to start their preparations. It is understood that they will officially start their training on March 19, the date of RCB Unbox event at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. The franchise did the same last year too. Meanwhile, RCB will play against CSK in the tournament opener in Chennai.
As far as Kohli is concerned, the former India skipper will have to badly perform in IPL 2024, to claim a stake at the Men in Blue’s T20 World Cup squad. It is a no brainer that Kohli will easily make into any side in the world purely based on his skills, consistency and statistics. For the unknown, Kohli has just played two T20Is since 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia.
It is also to be noted that IPL 2024 will be the only platform for captain Rohit Sharma and the selectors to zero on the 15 players to be on the flight to USA and West Indies. The T20 World Cup 2024 begins on June 1.