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IND vs AFG: Virat Kohli set to miss 1st T20I match against Afghanistan for personal reasons

The former India skipper will be available for the next 2 matches, Dravid said. Meanwhile, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rohit Sharma will be opening the innings for India, the coach added.

Virat Kohli is set to miss the first T20I against Afghanistan due to personal reasons, head coach Rahul Dravid said in the pre-match press conference on Wednesday.

The former India skipper will be available for the next 2 matches, Dravid said. Meanwhile, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rohit Sharma will be opening the innings for India, the coach added.

Kohli last played in the shortest format in November 2022, his last game being India’s semifinal loss during the T20 World Cup in Australia.

Meanwhile, talking about the swashbuckling Rinku Singh and his chances for the upcoming T20 World Cup, Dravid said, “Rinku has started very well in international cricket. He is pretty adept in the role of a finisher, something that we want from him. The series against Afghanistan as well as the IPL are platforms for him to develop. When it comes to the selection for the World Cup, that’ll be done when it’s time. But obviously if a player gives good performances, he catches the eye of the selectors.”

The three-match contest against Afghanistan will be India’s last before the T20 World Cup in June, giving the team more clarity on where it stands ahead of the ICC event in the Americas.

Talking about their preparation going into the World Cup, Dravid said, “There’s been quite a few ICC events in the last few years and a lot of them were back to back. So there’s hasn’t been a lot of time in between these events so at various stages in the last couple of years that I have been here, we had to prioritise certain formats and certain tournaments simply because of the amount of cricket being played. It’s impossible for all the players to be playing all the time so we have always had to prioritise on what is important, especially for the guys playing all three formats. Even in this series, people like Bumrah, Jadeja and Siraj have missed out keeping in mind that there are 5 Test matches against England next. So you are always playing that juggling act a little bit over the last 2 years.”

“Obviously for the large part of last year and after the last T20 World Cup, we had to prioritise the One Day World Cup. There’s not a lot of games after the ODI World Cup in terms of the T20 format. So this T20 World Cup is slightly different from that perspective in the sense that there’s hasn’t been a lot of time to prepare for it so we had to rely on the cricket we have and also a little bit on the IPL. The boys will play T20 cricket, here as well as the IPL. We might not get many opportunities to play together so we just have to work around that and adapt,” he added.

The coach was also asked to throw light on the availability of Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan to which Dravid said, “Ishan Kishan was not available for selection. He requested for a break in South Africa which we agreed to. He has not made himself available for selection and when he does, I am sure he’ll play domestic cricket and make himself available for selection. In Shreyas Iyer’s case, there is absolutely no disciplinary reason for his non-inclusion. It’s just that he missed out because there were a lot of batsmen in the team. He played the T20s in South Africa as well. It’s unfortunate. He’s a fine player but it’s not easy to fir everyone in the squad and the playing eleven. There were no disciplinary issues at all.”

India will play Afghanistan in 3 T20Is on January 11, 14 and 17 at Mohali, Indore and Bangalore respectively.

They will then move to Hyderabad to play the first of the 5-match Test series against England, starting January 25. The second will be from February 2-6 at Visakhapatnam while the 3rd will take place from February 15-19 at Rajkot.

The 4th Test will be from February 23-27 at Ranchi and the final one will be at Dharamsala from Match 7-11.

Source:indianexpress.com

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