Virat Kohli cuts cake specially customised for India's '500th Test' in Kanpur

Kanpur: India’s Test captain Virat Kohli on Saturday cut a specially customized cake kept by the hotel authorities as a part of celebration of India’s upcoming historic ‘500th Test’ against New Zealand starting at the Green Park, Kanpur on 22 September. The New Zealand team will arrive on Monday. The Indian players arrived in batches on Saturday for the Test match. The first ones to reach were Wriddhiman Saha, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ravindra Jadeja. [caption id=“attachment_3008946” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo of Virat Kohli. AP[/caption] Skipper Kohli along with openers Shikhar Dhawan, Murali Vijay, Ajinkya Rahane, Umesh Yadav arrived in the evening. They were all accorded traditional welcome. After Kohli cut ‘500th Test’ cake, birthday boy Ashwin, who turned 30 on the day also celebrated his birthday alongside teammates in the hotel lobby. Indian team will have a light session at Green park on Sunday. Meanwhile, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has extended invitations to several Indian cricket legends to attend the landmark Test, including Sachin Tendulkar, Dilip Vengsarkar, Krishnamachari Srikkanth and Mohammad Azharuddin. The invitation to Azharuddin came as a surprise, especially since the Indian cricket board had been avoiding sending him invites for social functions due to his involvement in the 2000 match-fixing scandal. The former Indian captain however, has  accepted the invitation to attend the match. New Zealand are currently playing the only warm-up fixture of their tour, against Mumbai in New Delhi. After declaring on 324 for 7, their bowlers took a bit of beating as the Ranji Trophy champions reached a score of 431 for 5 at stumps on Day 2.