The groundsman scared Virat Kohli by blowing the horn of the super sopper.© X (Twitter)
Star batter Virat Kohli was rested for India’s final Asia Cup Super 4 match against Bangladesh on Friday. In his absence, India lost the match by six runs. While the outcome had little affect on India’s campaign, having already qualified for the final, it certainly raised doubts over the bench strength of the team. Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav and Mohammed Siraj were all rested, with Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami and Prasidh Krishna coming in.
The dead rubber against Bangladesh was a good paltform for players to push their claim for a place in the playing XI. However, it was an underwhelming performance from Rohit Sharma and his men.
Barring Shubman Gill and Axar Patel, the other players failed to impress the management. With the final set to take place on Sunday, Kohli and the other senior players will return to take their respective roles.
Even when he is not playing, it is hard to take Kohli out of the equation. Against Bangladesh, the 34-year-old turned waterboy during the drinks break.
In a viral video, Kohli had an interesting encounter with a super sopper operator before the start of the match. The groundsman scared him by blowing the horn of the super sopper.
Virat #AsiaCup2023 pic.twitter.com/FymHzYrZ3E
— Nibraz Ramzan (@nibraz88cricket) September 15, 2023
Bangladesh ended India’s unbeaten run in the 50-over tournament after edging them out by six runs in Friday’s last Super Four match.
India will take on Sri Lanka in the final on Sunday.
The cricketing giants have 13 Asian titles between them and Sri Lanka have a history of sneaking into the tournament’s final — to the consternation of fans keen for any showdown between arch-rivals India and Pakistan.
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