Debasis Sen, Bengaluru: Indian captain Virat Kohli attended a fitness test along with other ODI cricketers at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) on Friday ahead of the tour of Ireland and England. Also attending the fitness tests were MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Kedar Jadhav, Yuzuvendra Chahal, Washington Sundar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Sidharth Kaul . The cricketers went through the fitness drills under the team’s physical instructor Shankar Basu.
Kohli, who suffered a neck injury while fielding during an Indian Premier League (IPL)fixture, is missing the ongoing test match against Afghanistan at the Chinaswamy stadium. The Indian captain was also forced to skip a county stint with Surrey.
See these happy faces, you get them when you are done with your exams. In this case, #FitnessTest. All set for am English summer with my brothers, @Jaspritbumrah93 and @sidkaul22 @iamsohamdesai pic.twitter.com/f1LPIVW4jz
— Suresh Raina (@ImRaina) June 15, 2018
Last month, the BCCI’s medical team had suggested that Kohli should not travel to Surrey and rest for a while. With the Englandtour around the corner, the Board is in no mood to comprise with Kohli’s fitness.
Bengaluru #FitnessTest ??? pic.twitter.com/GbC51T9sSy
— Jasprit bumrah (@Jaspritbumrah93) June 15, 2018
“We want him fully fit for the England tour,” a senior BCCI official said. While his team-mates will be battling it out against Afghanistan on the second day of the one-off Test match, Kohli will be aiming to trump the fitness test.
The Indian cricketers will fly to England on June 23 before reaching Dublin on June 25. They will take on Ireland in two T20I’s on June 27 & 29 respectively. The long summer in England starts with the T20 series on July 03 at Old Trafford.