Indian cricket team attends Arsenal-West Ham derby; N'Golo Kante not 'happy' that KL Rahul's a Gunner
The Premier League is already three weeks in and football fans all over the world are happier for it. This includes the Indian cricket team who are currently playing a five-match Test series against hosts England.
Having been given a few days off before the 4th Test at Southampton, the team decided to take to the stands of North London to watch a game of football.
Indian batsman KL Rahul had earlier met Chelsea star and World Cup winner N'Golo Kante and updated the entire meeting on Instagram. "Swipe left to watch me discuss Cricket and Football with the Champion- @nglkante. We spoke about his World Cup experience, how he started off and made his way up. He wasn't really happy that I ain't a Chelsea fan though. Really Humble Guy. Respect," KL Rahul said in a post on Instagram.
Rahul was also at North London to see the Gunners take on Manuel Pellegrini's West Ham for their first Premier League points. Clearly a fan, he was spotted in an Arsenal jersey in the stands of the Emirates watching the London derby, and posted his experience on Instagram.
Other Indian players were also spotted at the Arsenal-West Ham game. Umesh Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah were spotted in the stands of the Emirates on Saturday.
Bumrah tweeted about his experience in London. His caption read, 'Had a great time watching #ArsenalvsWestHam #totallyelectrifying'.
Arsenal bounced back from their opening two defeats and celebrated their first Premier League win of the season under new boss Unai Emery after coming from behind to beat West Ham United 3-1 with a Nacho Monreal strike, an Issa Diop own goal and a Danny Welbeck stoppage-time goal.
Rahul and Umesh also met with Arsenal striker Danny Welbeck and Arsenal's new goalkeeping signing Bernd Leno.
The Indian team's love for football is not a new phenomenon with team captain Virat Kohli himself being one of the biggest followers of the game. Kohli is a Real Madrid fan and has been incredibly vocal about his respect for Juventus and Portugal player, Cristiano Ronaldo.
Wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant was also spotted hanging out with opener Shikhar Dhawan and pacer Shardul Thakur in London.
It appears the Indian team are making good use of their free time in London after having put on a dominating show at Trent Bridge which led to a convincing win over the Joe Root led side, defeating them by 203 runs in the 3rd Test.
The fourth Test is set to take place from August 30 at The Rose Bowl, Southampton.