Bengaluru (Karnataka): Former skipper Virat Kohli has joined Royal Challengers Bangalore's (RCB) arrived in Bengaluru and joined the training camp ahead of the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and will attend franchise's Unbox event.
RCB took to Instagram and posted a video on Instagram to announce the arrival of stalwart and captioned it, "Too much happening too quickly and we're not slowing down. Is he here?"
On Sunday, The 35-year-old was spotted at the Mumbai airport and caught the flight to Bangalore late night to join the Bangalore squad ahead of the forthcoming IPL 2024 season. He was seen donning his cool white T-shirt, which featured a huge illustration of a cute cartoon character and had the word 'Dad' written on it.
The former India skipper had made a video call to women's RCB skipper Smriti Mandhana after they lift the Women's Premier League Trophy by defeating Delhi Capitals in the final on Sunday. He was seen interacting with Mandhana while other teammates were delighted and were watching him speaking on the call.
The veteran right-hand batter had missed India's 4-1 Test series triumph over England as he wanted to spend some quality time with his wife Anushka and family as they were expecting a baby. He became the father for the second time as the couple was recently blessed with a baby boy, Akaay.
In 237 appearances for RCB in the IPL, Kohli has amassed 7,263 runs at an average of 37.2 and a strike rate of 130.0 and is the leading run-scorer in the history of the competition. Kohli has been an integral part of the Bangalore-based franchise since its inception and has led the side for nine years. However, Kohli is yet to lift an IPL trophy with RCB in the past 16 seasons and he will be looking to secure the maiden title in the upcoming edition.
RCB will kick off their campaign in the curtain raiser clash against Chennai Super Kings on Friday at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on March 22.
RCB IPL 2024 squad:
Faf du Plessis (c), Glenn Maxwell, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Anuj Rawat, Dinesh Karthik, Suyash Prabhudessai, Will Jacks, Mahipal Lomror, Karn Sharma, Manoj Bhandage, Mayank Dagar, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Reece Topley, Himanshu Sharma, Rajan Kumar, Cameron Green, Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal, Tom Curran, Lockie Ferguson, Swapnil Singh, Saurav Chauhan.
