World Cup 2019: Virat Kohli rolls arms at nets in Southampton

The fans also loved watching Kohli bowl and even assumed he would be a good 6th bowling option.

Published - 30 May 2019, 16:40 IST | Updated - 30 May 2019, 16:40 IST

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With the ICC World Cup 2019 predicted to be a batsmen’s fanfare, teams are exploring more bowling options, especially slow ones so that the momentum gained by the batters can be broken. England’s Joe Root and Australia’s Steve Smith were seen rolling their arms in the warm-up games and now India captain Virat Kohli has also been seen trying his hands with the ball at the nets in Southampton, days ahead of his team’s opening World Cup game against South Africa on June 5.

The 30-year-old Kohli is set to play his third World Cup after 2011 and 2015 and the first as the captain and he has already remarked that this one will be one of the most challenging ones ever. India lost their first warm-up game against New Zealand by 6 wickets after a batting debacle but came back strongly to beat Bangladesh in the next one by 95 runs. Kohli scored a steady 47 in the second game and going by his rolling the arms over, it is clear that he is trying to add more to his capacity to contribute for the team.

Virat Kohli has 4 wickets in his long career

Kohli, who has 10,843 runs from 227 ODIs with 41 centuries, has also picked four wickets in his long career. He last bowled in August 2017 against Sri Lanka in which he bowled two overs to concede 12 runs without any success. The last time Kohli took a wicket was in Wellington when he took one for 36 runs in seven overs in New Zealand. His best bowling figure of one for 15 in two overs against South Africa in Johannesburg in December 2013. Overall, the right-arm seam up bowler has bowled in 48 innings and taken his four scalps for 665 runs at an average of 166 and economy rate of 6.22.

Here is the video of Virat Kohli’s bowling:

A little warm-up before hitting the nets for #TeamIndia Skipper @imVkohli.#CWC19 pic.twitter.com/OlwbKq0czD
— BCCI (@BCCI) May 30, 2019

Twitterati reacted to Kohli’s bowling practice at the nets with one social media user saying Kohli could be India’s sixth bowling option although Kedar Jadhav will be more handy for the Men in Blue in those concluding bowling slots. In case Kedar fails to bowl, Kohli could chip in.

On Wednesday evening, Kohli was present at the London Mall on the occasion of the tournament’s curtain-raiser ceremony. “It’s lovely to be here. We have such a huge fan base in England. The number of people travelling from home as well. It’s great to see at every stadium we play at, at least 50 per cent of the crowd is Indian fans. For us, that’s a thing of pressure but a thing of pride as well. Hopefully, we have got to use to the crowd support to our advantage,” he said.