Virat Kohli Granted Leave for Personal Reasons, to Miss Initial Tests Against England

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) granted Virat Kohli permission to spend time with his family, although he will miss the first two Test matches against England for “personal reasons."

Saturday was the scheduled time for the Indian players to gather in Hyderabad, the location of the first Test match, but Kohli only joined the team on Sunday and did not show up for the practise. On Monday morning, he departed the team hotel after having many conversations with the team hierarchy.

Virat Kohli has asked to be removed from the first two Test matches of the next Test series against England, BCCI announced in a statement. He claimed personal reasons for this request.

According to the statement, "Virat has told captain Rohit Sharma, the team management, and the selectors that, although serving his country has always been his first priority, some personal matters require his presence and undivided attention."

The team management and the Board have offered their support to the star batter, and the BCCI respects his choice. They also have faith in the other members of the squad to step up and perform well during the Test series.

In light of Virat Kohli's privacy at this time, the BCCI asks the public and media to please abstain from making assumptions about the nature of his private motivations. As the Indian cricket team takes on the forthcoming obstacles in the Test series, the emphasis should stay on providing support to them.

For personal reasons, Kohli missed the first Twenty20 international against Afghanistan at home before playing in the last two Test series matches for India, which ended in a 1-1 tie in South Africa.

For the white-ball portion of the South African tour, Kohli had been rested. Prior to the two Tests there, he had missed the three-day intra-team match that served as a warm-up after he had joined the squad for the Test series.

A major blow to the line-up would be caused by the absence of Kohli, who has amassed 1991 Test runs at 4.23 versus England.

His availability for the remaining Test matches is still up in the air. After traveling nonstop for the previous year, Ishan Kishan had previously taken a sabbatical due to mental exhaustion.

Having lost both of the first two Test matches with Kohli out as the No. 4 batsman, India will probably push KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer up the order by one slot each. In this case, either Dhruv Jurel or KS Bharat will take the wicketkeeping gloves off.

An alternative to Kohli is anticipated to be named by the selectors. In the practice match and the four-day encounter in Ahmedabad, Rajat Patidar, who recently scored hundreds of runs against the England Lions, will be considered.

Although it is doubtful that the selectors would recall Cheteshwar Pujara, Mumbai batter Sarfaraz Khan will be an alternative.

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