New Delhi, Feb 8 India batting coach Sitanshu Kotak has said that talismanic batter Virat Kohli is fit and available for selection for Sunday’s second ODI against England at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack on Sunday. Kohli had missed the first ODI which India won by four wickets in Nagpur due to a slight soreness in his right knee. “Virat Kohli is fit and available for selection. He will be practising with us today. He is good to go,” said Kotak in his pre-match press conference on Saturday.
With Kohli available for selection in the second ODI, it throws up a dilemma for the Indian team management on who will go out of the playing eleven to accommodate the veteran right-handed batter. In Nagpur, Shreyas Iyer came in for Kohli at the last minute and made an impactful 36-ball 59.
With Iyer getting a fifty and playing one of the pivotal roles in India’s opening ODI series win, he can’t be surely dropped. If India decides to bench Yashasvi Jaiswal, who made his ODI debut in Nagpur, then Shubman Gill could be back to opening the batting alongside captain Rohit Sharma, thus leaving the No.3 spot for Kohli.
This will be Kohli’s first ODI since playing on the tour of Sri Lanka in August last year, where India lost 2-0. It will be important for Kohli to get runs before going into the Champions Trophy, considering his form has been under immense scrutiny.
Kohli had a poor Test tour of Australia, where barring his unbeaten second-innings century in Perth, all of his dismissals came by nicking in the channel outside the off-stump. He then sought the guidance of former India and RCB batting coach Sanjay Bangar for removing chinks in his armour in Alibaug.
Kohli then played in Delhi’s final Ranji Trophy match - his first appearance in the competition after 2012 - but was bowled for six by Railways pacer Himanshu Sangwan. In ODIs, Kohli is 94 runs away from becoming only the third batter to reach 14,000 runs in the 50-over format.
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