Virat Kohli’s plans of prepping himself ahead of the India’s tour of England in July just went for a toss! The Indian captain, who was scheduled to play county cricket for Surrey in his bid to prepare for the tour, has been forced to cancel his plans.
“Virat suffered a neck injury while fielding during Match 51 of the IPL between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Sunrisers Hyderabad on 17 May 2018 in Bengaluru,” said BCCI in a statement.
“Kohli, who was scheduled to play for Surrey CCC in the month of June, has been ruled out from participating,” it added.
Kohli will require a three-week rehabilitation to recover from the injury, the severity of which was not specified by the BCCI. He will begin training and subsequently undergo a fitness test at the NCA in Bengaluru from 15 June.
That test will confirm his availability for the initial phase of the UK limited-overs tour starting with the two T20 Internationals against Ireland in the last week of June.
India will begin the series against England with T20Is in early July.
With three county championship matches in June, Virat was to miss India’s historic first-ever Test match against Afghanistan scheduled in Bengaluru from 14-18 June.
Earlier reports suggested the skipper may have to give the stint a miss after being diagnosed with a herniated disc. However, a top BCCI official, who is privy to Kohli's county engagements, told PTI that it is a case of "neck sprain" and not a "slip disc injury" as reported.
“Yes, Virat has had fatigue issues and this is a case of workload management rather than injury management. But it isn’t a case of slip disc. As of now, we will be monitoring his workload,” the senior official told PTI on condition of anonymity.
"We are chalking a plan wherein his county stint will be curtailed. He will play two four-day matches as per the original plan and not the five Royal London Cup (50 over) matches," he added.
When pressed further on the reported slip disc injury, the official replied: "Yesterday (23 May), Virat posted his fitness video as part of the Government's 'Fitness Challenge'. I can tell you that the video was shot yesterday."
Kohli had been tagged by Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore in the social media campaign and he had posted a video of him working out in the gym in response.
Soon after Royal Challengers Bangalore were knocked out of the ongoing Indian Premier League, Virat had a visited a leading orthopaedic surgeon in Mumbai’s Khar hospital, who informed him of damage to his spinal nerves, reported Pune Mirror.
The report, however, said that doctors did not feel that the India captain needs surgery just yet.
Asked why did he visit a spinal surgeon at Khar medical facility, the official said: "Virat had suffered a neck sprain during an IPL match in Jaipur (RCB's final game). The pain had subsided but he went for a precautionary check-up."
India captain in all three formats, there is no denying that Kohli has had tremendous workload during the past one year starting June 2017.
In this phase, he appeared in nine Tests and 29 of the 32 ODIs that the national team played. He also played 9 out of India's 18 T20 Internationals.
In all, he played 47 international matches with only Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya (48 each) playing a match more than him.
Add to it, the 14 IPL matches and his tally goes up to 61 in all.
Kohli was to make his County debut against Hampshire at the Rose Bowl in Southampton from 9 to 12 June. The second match was to be played against Somerset from 20-23 June at Guildford.
The 29-year-old was going to become the fourth Test eligible Indian player in county cricket this year with fellow batsman Cheteshwar Pujara currently at Yorkshire and seamers Ishant Sharma and Varun Aaron plying their trade at Sussex and Leicestershire respectively. Axar Patel is supposed to play for Durham in August.
(With inputs from PTI)
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