Virat Kohli Leaves Australian Shores After Delivering Motivational Speech in Dressing Room
Virat Kohli's Australia Tour ends: Before boarding his flight back home, Kohli met his teammates and encouraged them to give their all in the remainder of the series.
Indian skipper Virat Kohli heads back to India from Australia as he will miss the last three Tests against the hosts to be with his wife Anushka Sharma who is going to give birth to their first child in January.
Before leaving for India, Kohli handed over the captaincy to vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane and motivated the squad to give their best in the remaining three Tests against Australia.
Notably, Team India suffered a humiliating loss by 8 wickets against Australia in the series opener in Adelaide. They had also registered their lowest Test total of all time by being bundled out for 36 in the second innings. Nevertheless, Kohli urged the players to forget the disastrous innings and keep giving their best and “showing their intent” of playing the game on the pitch.
“Kohli has left Australia today morning. He had a word with the whole unit before leaving and the idea was to boost the confidence of the boys and keep them positive. He officially handed over the mantle of captaincy to Rahane and asked the team to keep showing intent and express themselves on the pitch. With Rohit Sharma set to join the squad only after the second game, Rahane’s role becomes all the more important in guiding the youngsters,” the source said as quoted by NDTV.
Rohit Sharma is Completely Safe in Sydney: BCCI Official
Rohit Sharma already arrived in Australia few days ago and is currently serving his 14-day quarantine in Sydney. However the increasing case of coronavirus in Sydney has created speculations over Rohit Sharma’s presence in third Test against the hosts.
There were speculations that Rohit might be moved to some other safer place, however, a BCCI official clarified that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is constantly in touch with the opening batsman and he is doing absolutely fine.
“He does not need to move from Sydney. He is safe and is in a bio-secure environment undergoing quarantine. While he is alone in his room, the Indian board as well as the team management is constantly in touch with him. If there was an emergency or if we felt that he needed to get out of Sydney, we would. But for now, he is completely safe there,” the official said.
Before flying for Australia, the opening batsman was handed the endurance program by his physio in the National Cricket Academy (NCA). Commenting on the same, the BCCI official stated that Rohit Sharma is doing regular training in his room.
“He is being monitored by the physios and he is doing his regular endurance work in his room. It is all about keeping fit and ready for action when it comes to hitting the ground running,” the official added.
