Media365
NEW DELHI: As India and England continue their five-match Test series, veteran Indian cricketer Virat Kohli and his wife, actor Anushka Sharma, were spotted in London. Kohli had announced his retirement from Test cricket just ahead of the England series.Kohli made his Test debut against West Indies in 2011. Over a stellar career, the 36-year-old featured in 210 Test innings, scoring 9,230 runs, with a highest score of 254 not out. In 123 Test matches, he struck 30 centuries and 31 fifties, making him the fourth-highest run-scorer for India in red-ball cricket.
Among all his opponents, Kohli has been most prolific against Australia, amassing 2,232 runs. His best year came in 2018, when he scored 1,322 Test runs — the most he’s recorded in a single calendar year.India, now led by Shubman Gill, are trailing 0-1 in the series and are in desperate need of a win in the second Test, which began on Wednesday at Edgbaston, Birmingham.England captain Ben Stokes won the toss and opted to bowl. England went unchanged from the first Test, which they won by five wickets, while India made three changes.India rested Jasprit Bumrah, bringing in Akash Deep. Nitish Kumar Reddy and Washington Sundar replaced Sai Sudharsan and Shardul Thakur.Asked about Bumrah’s exclusion, Gill said: “Just to manage his workload, this is an important match but third match being at Lords, there will be a bit in the wicket, and we thought we’ll play him there.”
There was also no place for Kuldeep Yadav, with Gill explaining: “We were tempted to play him but we thought of adding a bit of depth in our batting.”England’s players wore black armbands in memory of former cricketer Wayne Larkins, who passed away on June 28.England had chased 371 on the final day to win the opening Test at Headingley.Teams:England: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (capt), Jamie Smith (wk), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir.India: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Karun Nair, Shubman Gill (capt), Rishabh Pant (wk), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna.
