Star India batter Virat Kohli and his wife, actress Anushka Sharma, have received an invitation to be part of the Ram Mandir ‘Pran Pratistha’ ceremony in Ayodhya on January 22. A picture of the celebrity couple posing with the invitation card went viral on social media. Hours after the image surfaced on social media, it is now being learnt that Kohli has even been granted permission by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to be part of the same. Kohli was supposed to be part of the training camp ahead of the Tests against England but the Indian cricket board seems to have agreed to give him a day off.
The same has been confirmed in a report carried by Cricbuzz. The report claimed that Kohli had asked for permission fron the BCCI to be part of the event who have allowed him to be part of the grand spectacle being planned. The same report also suggested that the team has been told to meet in Hyderabad on January 20 with the first of the five Tests against the Three Lions set to begin here from January 25.
Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni Other Cricketers To Get The Invitation
Meanwhile, former Indian cricket stars Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni also received their invitation for the ‘Pran Pratistha’ ceremony. A senior member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Dhananjay Singh handed Dhoni the invitation himself with the Bhariya Janata Party (BJP) organising secretary Karamveer Singh also present.
As far as Kohli is concerned, he has a job to do at hand before heading to Ayodhya as India take on Afghanistan in the third and the final T20I of the series at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on January 17 (Wednesday). This is India’s final T20I before the T20 World Cup in June and with the management seemingly sticking with the senior duo of Kohli and Rohit Sharma in this format, it would be interesting to see what they bring to the table.