The Indian cricket team has arrived in Thiruvananthapuram for their second and final warm-up match of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023, but their star batter Virat Kohli is not with them. The Indian players flew from Guwahati to Thiruvananthapuram, while Kohli travelled to Mumbai due to personal reasons.
Kohli will join the team a day later and is expected to take the field against Netherlands. He is preparing for his fourth ODI World Cup and has previously won the title with the Indian team in 2011. Kohli also captained the team in their last World Cup in England, where they sadly made a semifinal exit and the veteran would be pumped out to do well in the home soil, which could most probably be his last 50-over World Cup.
According to reports in Cricbuzz, The Men In Blue will have a practice session before their game against the Netherlands if the weather permits them to do so in Kerala.
“Team India will have an optional training session from 2 PM onwards at the KCA – St Xavier’s College Cricket Ground, Thiruvananthapuram, weather permitting.”
The Indian team is set to play the Netherlands in a practice match on Tuesday but there are concerns about the weather forecast predicting rain which could lead to another washout in Thiruvananthapuram. The Men In Blue would be riding high confidence after winning the Asia Cup 2023 and ODI series against Australia.
Those Angry Celebrations Are A Thing Of The Past – Virat Kohli
Virat Kohli has recently admitted that the last two and a half years of his career have been a learning experience for him. and it was a tough phase when he did not score a century in any form of cricket for almost two years. However, he also revealed that he has moved past the phase of angry celebrations.
“The last two and a half years have taught me a lot. Those angry celebrations are a thing of the past. I have had many suggestions, lots of advice has come my way; people were telling me I was doing this wrong, that wrong.”
“I picked out all the videos from the best time I had, same initial movement, same approach towards the ball and it was just what was happening inside my head, I wasn’t able to explain it to anyone,” Virat Kohli said.
Virat Kohli is an exceptional batsman in all three formats of the game, but his performance in ODI cricket has been truly outstanding. With an average of close to 60 runs in ODI cricket, he has set a different level of dominance in ODI cricket. The 34-year-old has returned to his usual best in 2023, and this could prove to be a crucial factor for India’s chances in the World Cup, especially considering that it will be held on home soil.