Report says, Virat Kohli takes a break from White Ball Cricket. So, he will not be available for India’s upcoming tour to South Africa and the three-match T20I series against Afghanistan in January. As per the Report, Kohli has decided to concentrate on red-ball cricket as of now and will only play the two Tests in South Africa and not the ODIs and T20Is.
A BCCI source told The Indian Express, “He (Kohli) has informed the BCCI and selectors that he needs a break from white-ball cricket and he will get back to them about when he wants to play white-ball cricket next. At the moment he has informed the BCCI that he will be playing red-ball cricket, which means he is available for selection for the two Test matches in South Africa.” But there is no clarity on India captain Rohit Sharma’s availability for the white-ball leg of the South Africa tour.
Both Rohit and Kohli have not played T20 cricket since the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia. They were on tremendous form in ICC World Cup 2023. On the other hand, the T20I World Cup in on June next year. But as things stand now, it seems unlikely that Rohit and Kohli will feature in T20Is anymore.
Last year, Kohli took a break after the tour of England, sitting out of the two limited-over series in the West Indies and Zimbabwe. At that time he said, “For the first time in 10 years, I didn’t touch my bat for a month. I haven’t done that ever in my life. I came to the realisation that I was trying to kind of fake my intensity a bit recently. ‘I can do it, you’re competitive’, you’re convincing yourself you have the intensity but your body is telling you to stop, your mind is telling you to just take a break and step back.” It was a great World Cup for Kohli. He scored 765 runs in 11 innings, including three hundreds. He broke Sachin Tendulkar’s record of highest ODI centuries. He was also awarded as player of the tournament. After India’s heart breaking defeat in World Cup final against Australia, Kohli is currently on holiday in London.