RCB
Photo Credit: RCB Twitter.

On Friday, When RCB on their official Twitter account shared a group photo of players who boarded a flight for the UAE, fans could not spot Virat Kohli with them. The players were wearing masks and face shields for safety reasons. So, it was hard to name who was who.

However, Yuzvendra Chahal, Umesh Yadav, Shivam Dube and another couple of players could be easily recognised. But, Virat Kohli could not be seen in the picture which created a buzz among the RCB fans whether the skipper would travel or not.

Hours later, RCB uploaded another picture on Twitter. And, this time, it was Virat Kohli’s thumbs up pic from the team’s hotel in the UAE. It gave a sigh of relief to fans to see their favourite cricketer.

Virat Kohli, RCB,
Photo Credit: BCCI/IPL.

RCB skipper has not travelled in his team’s flight which is why no one could spot him in the group photo. The skipper had travelled to the UAE with a separate charter plane.

Here is the group photo of RCB players where Virat Kohli is missing:

The reason behind Virat Kohli missing from the team’s flight:

According to a report in Bangalore Mirror, while all the Indian players and support staff took off from Bengaluru, the captain had to fly out of Mumbai because of bio-safety issues.

“He had quarantined himself in Mumbai and also tested himself for COVID-19. So, he could not come to Bengaluru. He flew alone by a charter flight from Mumbai,” a spokesperson of the franchise was quoted as saying by the news outlet.

Meanwhile, RCB’s South Africa contingent AB de Villiers, Chris Morris and Dale Steyn have also arrived in the UAE on Saturday early morning. They also took a charter flight to arrive Dubai to start preparing ahead of the IPL 2020 scheduled from 19th September.