Virat Kohli
Virat Kohli Credits: Twitter

Fans invading pitch to get close to their favourite cricket stars is nothing new and it happened once again on Sunday (January 14) when India were locking horns against Afghanistan in the second T20I in Indore. As usual, the focal point of the incident was the batting superstar, Virat Kohli.

The former India skipper was fielding near the boundary when the incident happened. The match marked his much-awaited return to T20Is for Team India. It was his first T20I for the Men in Blue in more than a year. Virat Kohli’s last T20I appearance for Team India had come in the semifinal loss against England in the 2022 T20 World Cup.

The excited fans were chanting his name and one of them decided to show his love and admiration for the cricket superstar in a different manner. He decided to get onto the pitch to hug Virat Kohli. He successfully managed to evade the security personnel and reached the ground to meet the right-handed batsman. The young man touched Virat Kohli’s feet and hugged him before being taken off the ground.

The police latter decided to take action against the pitch invader. A police official confirmed that the youth had a ticket for the match and entered the Holkar Stadium from Narendra Hirwani Gate. As per the official, the pitch invader entered the ground by climbing the fence of the spectators’ gallery with the desire to meet the player. He is currently being interrogated and further actions will be taken soon.

Virat Kohli’s return:

All eyes were on Virat Kohli as he made his much-awaited return to T20Is. The star batsman had to walk out to bat in the very first over after Rohit Sharma was dismissed for a duck. He started positively and looked in good touch, hitting 5 boundaries in the first 15 balls he faced.

However, Virat Kohli could not convert his start into a big score and was dismissed for 29 off 16 balls. His dismissal did not cost India much as they went on to chase down 173 inside 17 overs by losing just 4 wickets. Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shivam Dube scored half-centuries to lead India’s charge with the bat.