Virat Kohli joins Indian team for World T20 campaign

New York: India’s premier batter Virat Kohli arrived here on Friday for the T20 World Cup, five days after his other team members but it is still not clear if he would be playing the warm-up game against Bangladesh on Saturday.

“Virat Kohli has checked in at the team hotel and after a long flight, he would be taking rest,” a senior BCCI source confirmed his arrival.

Having travelled for 16 hours to reach the ‘Big Apple’, his participation in the practice match will depend on how Kohli feels and if he is willing to have a hit against the Bangladesh side at the Nassau County Cricket Ground.

Kohli has scored 741 runs in 15 IPL games. He doesn’t need much match practice, and he will still get three quality net sessions before the first game against Ireland on June 5.

There was an optional training session on Friday morning in which Rinku Singh, Shivam Dube and Mohammed Siraj sweated it out under the guidance of the support staff.

The team management and the BCCI have often made exceptions about Kohli linking up with the national team. He was also permitted a break before the South Africa Test series when he arrived in the ‘Rainbow Nation’ only to leave for the UK for personal reasons before rejoining the squad.

He skipped the entire England Test series at home in February-March for the birth of his second child.

This time too, for the T20 World Cup, the first batch of players flew in on May 25 while the second group touched down on May 28.

Kohli has so far missed three sessions of training but if one goes by what the team management feels, they understand that the legend knows his stuff and his routines won’t be tinkered with.