Virat Kohli, the Indian captain, is all set for his maiden county cricket stint, a report in The Mirror suggested on Saturday (March 24).
As per the report, Kohli will fly to England after the culmination of the Indian Premier League (IPL), which deems that he will miss the historic Test against Afghanistan.
The report also suggests that Kohli has signed a deal with English County side Essex, where he will join former England captain Alastair Cook.
There were reports that Kohli might miss the Afghanistan Test to take rest before Ireland and England series. However, it has tuned out to be something else.
It was in 2016 when Kohli, for the first time, talked about him looking forward to playing county cricket before the England series.
Though, the busy schedule of the Indian team meant that he could not play county cricket.
Players like Ravichandran Ashwin and Cheteshwar Pujara went onto sign deals last year (2017) and also played for distinct clubs.
Recently, Pujara signed a deal with Yorkshire and will fly to England again before the five-match Test series.
Ishant Sharma, who went unsold in IPL auction, will also play county cricket for Sussex for a period of two months.
The three players will get a fair idea about the conditions in England before India play a gruelling series there. The Test competition will kick off on August 1.
With Kohli set to miss the historic Test against Afghanistan, it is confirmed that Ajnkya Rahane, the vice-captain of the Test team, will lead India.
It will be the second time when Rahane will lead the Indian team in a Test match – having led the side last year when Kohli missed the Dharamsala Test against Australia due to a shoulder injury.
Not just Kohli, many of the players might also fly to England – to play county cricket, so as, to assimilate to the conditions there.
It is not confirmed whether Kohli will play two Twenty20 Internationals against Ireland. But given that he will play for Essex for at last one-month, he might miss the T20I series owing to the speculations.
The India tour of England starts on July 3, with both the teams playing three T20Is to kick off the series.
Following the T20I series, both the teams will play three ODIs on July 12, 14 and 17.
It will be after the completion of ODI series when Indian will kick off ardent five-match Test series against Joe Root led the side in Birmingham.
The pressure will be on India as the side has lost previous two Test series in England and Virat Kohli will have a great responsibility on himself.
On personal front as well, he has a big challenge as on the previous tour, he just managed 134 runs in 10 innings an average of 13.40.
The county stint will help him know the conditions better.