Virat Kohli is reportedly set to return to competitive cricket ahead of the Indian Premier League 2024. The star cricketer missed India’s five-match Test series against England due to personal reasons and there were no official updates on his return date but the RCB batter is set to join the team’s pre-tournament camp in Bengaluru.
Royal Challengers Bangalore clash against rivals Chennai Super Kings in the IPL 2023 opener on March 22 and face no injury and player unavailability issues.
According to a report from ESPNcricinfo, the former RCB captain will join the training camp before the opener. The report also adds that the new signing Cameron Green is also available for the CSK game after being given the green signal to miss the Sheffield Shield final by Cricket Australia.
RCB are set to field their strongest playing eleven against Chennai with Kohli joining the team. He is likely to open with captain Faf du Plessis in the 2024 edition as the duo scorched over 1000 runs in IPL 2023 together. Cameron Green, Rajat Patidar and Glenn Maxwell further boost RCB’s middle order followed by wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik.
Kohli registered 639 runs in 14 innings in IPL 2023 with two brilliant centuries but RCB finished sixth in the point table. He smashed an unbeaten century against Gujarat Titans in his last IPL innings and fans will be hoping for a similar impact in the upcoming 17th edition.
At the international level, Kohli last played T20Is against Afghanistan in January this year where he recorded 29 and 0 in two innings. He was the team’s leading runscorer in the Tests on South Africa tour in his last international matches.
RCB’s squad for IPL 2024: Faf du Plessis (c), Virat Kohli, Dinesh Karthik, Glenn Maxwell, Will Jacks, Mohammed Siraj, Anuj Rawat, Mahipal Lomror, Cameron Green, Suyash Prabhudessai, Rajat Patidar, Akash Deep, Mayank Dagar, Reece Topley, Karn Sharma, Rajan Kumar, Manoj Bhandage, Himanshu Sharma, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal, Tom Curran, Lockie Ferguson, Saurav Chauhan, Swapnil Singh.