Virat Kohli and Co spread Christmas cheer: Indian cricket team take on Mannequin Challenge

Virat Kohli and his men were the latest sporting team to be bitten by the "Mannequin Challenge" bug . The Indian cricket team registered a comprehensive 4-0 victory over England in their five-match Test series and held on to their numero uno status in the latest ICC Test rankings. As a celebration, they decided to embrace the latest internet sensation doing the rounds on social media. In this latest viral video meme, people in groups are freezing themselves for a minute or more, often in elaborate poses and scenarios. One person walks through the area, filming the whole scene and sometimes showing up-close shots of the “mannequins”. Earlier, during the first India-England Test match at Rajkot, it was the commentary team that had decided to take on this challenge. In a creative behind-the-scenes video, Sanjay Manjrekar, Aakash Chopra, Kapil Dev, Mike Atherton, Ian Botham and others posed in the commentary box.

#TeamIndia takes on the #MannequinChallenge and wishes everyone Merry Christmas https://t.co/9y1OoPr2cD pic.twitter.com/pQ0b22rzHo

— BCCI (@BCCI) December 25, 2016

Now it’s the Indian team’s turn on the festive occasion of Christmas. Their video, which was uploaded on the official BCCI website and shared on their Twitter account, starts off with Kohli kissing the Anthony D’Mello trophy. Next, the camera closes in on Ravindra Jadeja and Umesh Yadav standing together in the dressing room. It moves to Ishant Sharma posing while pointing at his other teammates, moves to Cheteshwar Pujara practising a stroke and then focuses on Murali Vijay “frozen"in a solid defensive stance. Next up in the 81-second long video is Manish Pandey, who is stuck mid-pose while exchanging a bat with his Karnataka teammate Karun Nair. The video also features the coaches and support staff of the Indian cricket team posing in the dressing room. It ends with Kohli, coach Anil Kumble and the rest of the team wishing everyone a “Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.” With the splendid year that they have had, the team is now off for a deserved break before the ODI series against England commences in January 2017.