Virat Kohli finds support from RCB coach Gary Kirsten for picking Surrey deal

While India is all set to play Afghanistan in a historic first next month, they will miss the service of regular skipper Virat Kohli. The 29-year-old will be travelling to the UK to ply his trade in domestic cricket for county side Surrey.  The India captain is set to feature in both the Royal London One Day Cup and the County Championship. The decision comes in accordance with India’s future endeavours. The Men in Blue are slated to have a two-month-long tour in England, and the stint is expected to help Kohli acclimatize to the conditions.

Virat Kohli will be joining the likes of other Indians-Ishant Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, and Varun Aaron who are already plying their trade in England for different franchises. With Virat coming in, it will be really interesting to see the performance of these players in the upcoming England tour. In his absence, Ajinkya Rahane has been bestowed with the captaincy reins for the upcoming Afghanistan Test.

The dynamic batsman, who is currently skippering Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL also received the backing of coach Gary Kirsten for his decision to chose Surrey stint over the Afghanistan Test

Gary Kirsten opens up on Virat Kohli’s decision

Kirsten was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times, “Strategically he has done a good thing to sign a contract with Surrey for a month. To get acclimatized to the conditions, I think that is very smart. But he has three years more experience now from the last tour. I thought the Indian team, although they didn’t win the series in South Africa they had a very strong series.

“If you take the whole tour they won the ODIs easy. England will be a different kettle of fish at home and they will swing the ball. Anderson and Stuart Broad will be very effective in England. If they can overcome that then potentially they will have a good series.”

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