Virat Kohli Ruled Out of First ODI Against England Due to Knee Injury 

India won the first match of the ODI series against England on Thursday, February 6. However, one of the team’s star players, Virat Kohli, did not play in this game. Later, it became known that this was due to an injury he sustained even before the start of the match.

Injury at Training 

Commenting on Kohli’s absence during the toss, captain Rohit Sharma clarified that the player suffered a knee injury in training on Wednesday. He has been substituted in the India XI by debutant Yashasvi Jaiswal. Another debutant was bowling allrounder, Harshit Rana, who ended up being one of the players who led the team to victory. The next match against the Three Lions will be played on Sunday, February 9. The final game is scheduled for February 12 in Ahmedabad. After that, the teams will head to the ICC Champions Trophy. England will play in Pakistan and India in the UAE. 

Kohli’s Status 

Experts and fans have been closely monitoring Virat Kohli’s preparation in recent months. The player’s fitness has been questionable since he played poorly on the tour against Australia. After that, he spent seven days working with former India and RCB batting coach Sanjay Bangar. Virat then participated in his first game in the Ranji Trophy (for the first time since 2012). All this is part of the player’s preparation plan for ICC CT 2025. 

On the Threshold of a Statistical Peak

It is important to recall that Kohli is close to becoming just the third batter in history to reach 14,000 runs in ODI format. He has 94 runs to go and will be the fastest cricketer to reach this milestone, anyway. Earlier, Sachin Tendulkar and Kumar Sangakkara managed it.