India vs South Africa: Virat Kohli links up with squad after pre-approved London trip, says report

Virat Kohli has joined his Indian teammates in South Africa after a pre-approved trip to London. There had been reports that said he had returned home due to "a family emergency". However, it appears that was never the case. The star batter had travelled to London after going through a couple of training sessions in South Africa, says a report by Cricket Next. Quoting a BCCI official, the journey to the United Kingdom was approved by the Indian cricket board (BCCI) and the team management were well aware of the plans. “Virat Kohli wasn’t going to play that game. The team management was aware about his plan and schedule, and it isn’t something which happened overnight or due to family emergency. Look at the player in question, it’s Virat Kohli. He is very well planned when it comes to these things and his London trip was communicated and planned well in advance,” said a senior BCCI official as per the report. With Kohli travelling to London, he missed the two-day inter-squad practice game in Pretoria from 20-22 December. However, he is already in the Rainbow Nation for the first Test which is scheduled to take place at SuperSport Park in Centurion. Kohli had missed both of India’s white-ball series, the ODIs and T20Is, before joining the team on 15 December. He trained with the squad for three days before the journey to London on 19 December. The Rohit Sharma-captained India will take the field without Mohammed Shami, Ishan Kishan and Ruturaj Gaikwad who have all been ruled out with injuries. Shami didn’t get the clearance from the BCCI medical team while Kishan requested for a break and Gaikwad sustained a finger injury in the second ODI. As a result, KS Bharat and Abhimanyu Easwaran have been named as replacements in the squad. India Test squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Prasidh Krishna, KS Bharat (wk), Abhimanyu Easwaran.