Mohali (Punjab): India's head coach Rahul Dravid has shared that former skipper and ace batter Virat Kohli will miss the opening game of the T20I series against Afghanistan due to personal reasons. The Men in Blue will face Afghan side in the first T20I at the IS Bindra Stadium here on Thursday and they will look to kick off the series with a victory.
India are set to play a three match T20I series against Afghanistan from January 11 to January 17. The series also marks the return of the star duo of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli to the shortest format after playing their last T20I game in the World Cup last year. However, head coach Dravid has informed that the latter will miss the first T20I fixture due to personal reasons but will return back for the second and third game of the series.
"Virat Kohli will miss the first game due to personal reasons," Dravid said. "He will be playing from the second and third T20I," he added.
Meanwhile, Dravid, himself a former India batter said, "There's been quite a few ICC events over the last two, three years, and a lot of them back to back." "So there's not been a lot of time in between these ICC events. At various stages, in the last couple of years that I've been here, we've had to prioritise certain formats, certain tournaments, simply because just the amount of cricket that is being played, and just managing the players, it's impossible for all the players to be playing all the time," he added.
Rahul Dravid also confirmed that Yashasvi Jaiswal would open along with Rohit in Mohali. The Indian lineup also miss the names of Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer. Also, there were talks around both of them getting excluded from the team due to lack of discipline. Dravid denied possibility of exclusion due to lack of discipline showcased from both the players.
"Absolutely not. Ishan Kishan was not available for selection. Ishan had requested for a break in South Africa which we agreed to, and supported that. Shreyas Iyer's case has absolutely nothing to do with any disciplinary issue. It is just that he missed out. There are a lot of batsmen in the team. He did not play in the T20s in the SA as well," said the former Indian captain.
Although, there is a doubt around the scheduling of the first game in Mohali, India will be keen to start the series on a winning note.
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