T20 World Cup: [WATCH] Virat Kohli shows off his football skills ahead of warm-up match against Australia
Senior batter Virat Kohli is all geared up for the T20 World Cup. The fitness freak enjoyed some quality time playing football on the eve of the warm-up match against Australia in Brisbane on Monday (October 17).
Kohli will be looking to come out all guns blazing in the showpiece T20 event as India aim to lift only their second T20 World Cup trophy after a 15-year gap.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) uploaded a video of Kohli and captioned it:
“Kohli showing off his football skills.”
The Delhi batter has been in excellent form since the Asia Cup, where he was India’s leading run-scorer. He played a match-winning knock of 63(48) in the T20I series decider against Australia in Hyderabad. He also slammed a 28-ball 49 against the Proteas in the Guwahati T20I.
The right-handed batter has already scored 485 runs in 14 T20Is this year, which includes a century and four fifties.
“Virat Kohli will spearhead the batting unit” – Former Indian cricketer backs star batter to shine in T20 World Cup
Former Indian cricketer Reetinder Singh Sodhi feels Virat Kohli will once again deliver for the Men in Blue in the ICC tournament. He said that the batter will play a pivotal role at the No. 3 spot, adding that big players are known to deliver on big stages.
Speaking to India News, he said:
“Batting is our strength. In bowling, we’ve little inexperience, but the batting department is quite experienced. Virat Kohli will spearhead the batting unit and his juggernaut is unstoppable this time. He has picked up excellent form.”
He continued:
“I fully believe that in the T20 World Cup, his form will unleash in a big way because big players deliver in important tournaments. It often happens with Kohli. His performance at No. 3 will be crucial.”
In Australia, Kohli has scored 451 runs in 11 T20Is at an average of 64.43, including five half-centuries.
The batter didn’t bat in a couple of warm-up matches against Western Australia XI. So he will be looking to start afresh in the warm-up matches against Australia and New Zealand (October 19) to prepare ahead of the Super 12 clash against arch-rivals Pakistan in Melbourne on Sunday (October 23).
India's squad for the ICC T20 World Cup: Rohit Sharma (captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh and Mohammad Shami