According to the recent reports, Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli will play the English county cricket in the upcoming English cricket summer. It will be Kohli’s inaugural season in English county cricket.
While Indian Test batsman Cheteshwar Pujara will busy in the English county cricket for his old team Yorkshire, Indian skipper Virat Kohli can play for Surrey County Cricket Club. It will be Kohli’s first English county season.
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If Kohli features in the county season, then it is possible for him to miss the one-off Afghanistan Test match. As per schedule, Afghanistan will play their first ever Test match against India which will begin on June 14 at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium (Bengaluru). If Kohli will miss that Test match, then possibly Ajinkya Rahane will lead the Indian side who is the present Test vice-captain for India.
Apart from Pujara and Kohli, off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and pacer Ishant Sharma will also play the county cricket in the upcoming season for Warwickshire and Sussex respectively. Indian cricketers are looking forward to the upcoming English tour which will begin in this July and that is the reason why Indian cricketers are giving importance to play the county cricket.
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CoA chief Vinod Rai recently spoke about that as he quoted to PTI, “Virat Kohli will be playing for the top English County side Surrey in the month of June. The BCCI has allowed him to fully focus on the England Test series along with Cheteshwar Pujara (Yorkshire), Ravichandran Ashwin (Warwickshire) and Ishant Sharma (Sussex). Virat will miss the Test match against Afghanistan in Bangalore from June 14-18.”
He further added, “The decision has been taken in consultation with the players as we felt after the South Africa series, our Test team needs more time to acclimatise before the England Test series. The BCCI were in talks with the various counties as we wanted our main players to get county exposure.”
Now, look at the Twitter reactions on Virat Kohli’s first ever county season
Interesting to see whether Virat Kohli ends up at Surrey. Would be perfect preparation for the Indian captain before the Test series against England…
— Paul Newman (@Paul_Newman66) March 24, 2018
https://twitter.com/JoshGareth/status/977392517535514625
https://twitter.com/Sajjanlaunda/status/977405205330345984
Virat Kohli to Surrey eh? If so could play three County Championship matches in between IPL and India’s tour. Ageas Bowl, Guildford and Scarbados… pic.twitter.com/czd9ldAkmA
— Ali Martin (@Cricket_Ali) March 24, 2018
https://twitter.com/stevenelson45/status/977395440114057216
https://twitter.com/cricfreakz/status/977396137316384768
Virat #Kohli to play for Surrey in English Domestic season ahead of England tour. Great decision to skip Matches against Afghanistan & prioritise what is more important !!
— Danish Khan (@danishkhan_30) March 24, 2018
Surrey supporters messageboard getting a bit excited at the prospect of Virat Kohli playing for us this season (memories of the Ohja-inspired promotion?!) https://t.co/4QGtWnTPIu https://t.co/wY6ADFqBKc
— Surrey CCC Supporters’ Club (@SurreyCCCSC) March 24, 2018
“Virat Kohli is Now Surrey Boy” Great Move By Worlds Greatest Batsman choose to play County
Achiever & Passionate towards The game …— bhanu chander (@Am4some1) March 24, 2018
https://twitter.com/markpetticord/status/977530536435634177
