Virat Kohli has been granted paternity leave by BCCI and he will return home after the first test of the Australia tour, to be played in Adelaide from 17 December. It is not yet clear if the Indian captain will be able to return for the rest of the Trials but, however long his absence, it is a great blow to the tourists’ plans.
Kohli and his wife Anushka Sharma are expecting their first child in the new year, which has put a question mark on Kohli’s availability for the full tour, scheduled to run from November 27 to January 19. The tour will begin with three ODIs, followed by three T20Is, with the four-round Border-Gavaskar Trophy played at the end.
In a press release on Monday, the BCCI said that Kohli would return to India after the first test, which will be India’s first day and night test abroad. However, the board did not specify whether Kohli would rejoin the India test team at a later stage, although any return would have to negotiate strict quarantine protocols, increasing the time he would not be available.
ESPNcricinfo has contacted Sourav Ganguly, the president of BCCI, to see if Kohli could rejoin the test team at a later date, but we have not received a response.
Other than that, the board did not say who would take over as captain in Kohli’s absence, although Ajinkya Rahane, as the designated vice-captain, would be the likely candidate.
“At the selection committee meeting held on October 26, 2020, Mr. Virat Kohli had informed the BCCI about his plans to return to India after the first test in Adelaide,” said the BCCI statement, which was signed by board secretary Jay Shah. “The BCCI has granted paternity leave to the Indian captain. He will return after the first test against Australia in Adelaide.”
Kohli’s missing evidence is a pretty rare occurrence. Since taking over as regular test captain for MS Dhoni, on a tour of Australia in 2014-15, he has only missed two tests (he was captain of the first test of that series, but as an interim arrangement because Dhoni was injured): one with an injury against Australia in the 2017-18 series at home and once when he rested for the India Test against Afghanistan in 2018. Both times, Rahane took over. India won both events.
Kohli is five tests short of equaling Dhoni’s record in most tests as captain of India (60), and is alone in terms of more wins: 33 in 55 tests, compared to Dhoni’s 27 of 60 And Kohli was the captain when India won a series in Australia for the first time, in 2018-19.
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