From the moment, India captain Rohit Sharma announced Virat Kohli will miss the 1st ODI against England in Nagpur on Thursday, concerns are rising among the Indian fans with the Champions Trophy coming up. BCCI said in an official update that Kohli was unavailable for selection in the first ODI in Nagpur due to a sore right knee. Injuries have been a rarity for Virat Kohli, who is a bench mark in terms of fitness. In fact, this is the first time since the South Africa vs India Test in Johannesburg (January 3-6, 2022) that Kohli has missed a match due to injury. That makes it first time in 1130 days that Kohli missed a match due to injury.
Ahead of that match against South Africa, Kohli missed the second Test against South Africa due to an upper back spasm.
However, the injury suffered by senior batter Virat Kohli ahead of Thursday’s first ODI against England here may turn out to be a minor setback for India as the injury does not look serious and the former India captain is likely to be back in the next match.
Kohi was on the field with his teammates soon after they arrived at the stadium, warming up for the first ODI though with a strapping or kneecap on his right knee. This proves the injury is not very serious and may not require him to miss more matches.
There were some unconfirmed reports early in the morning that allrounder Hardik Pandya was taken to the hospital on Wednesday night after he complained of stomach pain. However, the Indian team management did not confirm anything. In the end, Pandya was included in the squad, and it was Kohli who had to sit out.
With Kohli unavailable for selection, the team management decided to hand Yashasvi Jaiswal a maiden ODI cap along with pace-bowling allrounder Harshit Rana while Mohammed Shami made his comeback into the ODI squad after the 2023 World Cup.
Earlier, there were expectations that spinner Varun Chakravarthy could get to make his ODI debut after he was drafted into the squad late following his superb bowling in the T20I series, in which he was named Player of the Series with 14 wickets, including a fifer, in the third match at Rajkot.
In his pre-match press conference, skipper Rohit had hinted that Chakravarthy would play one of the matches as the team management was really impressed with his bowling in the T20Is, bringing the leg-spinner into the fray for the upcoming Champions Trophy.
But in the end, that was not to be, and Chakravarthy will have to wait for his ODI debut as India decided to hand the first cap to Harshit Rana.
With IANS inputs
