Team management insists Kohli will be available for the Netherlands warm-up despite his lack of participation in the squad.

Although Virat Kohli has not yet joined the Indian team in Thiruvananthapuram, the team administration has insisted that he will do so shortly.

There was no information available as of late Monday evening (October 2) regarding the great India hitter joining up with other players on the Indian team. But the management has constantly insisted that he will soon arrive in Kerala.

He will be arriving soon and should be eligible for selection in tomorrow’s game, according to a team official. The second and final pre-World Cup game that India will play is against the Netherlands. Five days later, in Chennai, they will begin their World Cup campaign.

The Indian players, as reported by Cricbuzz on Sunday, flew immediately from Guwahati to Thiruvananthapuram, while Kohli traveled to Mumbai owing to a family emergency. He has been given leave by the team management. But by Monday, he was supposed to be in Thiruvananthapuram.

On Monday afternoon, the Indian squad trained without interruption at the city’s KCA – St. Xavier’s College Cricket Ground. Not all players participated in the training session because it was an optional one. But it was then discovered that several players, including KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, R Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, and Mohammed Siraj, engaged in a nearly two-and-a-half-hour practice session.

The widespread consensus is that Tuesday’s game shouldn’t see too many delays because the weather in Kerala appears to be improving. The game between New Zealand and South Africa on Monday lasted 87 overs before coming to a disappointing conclusion with a seven-run DLS Method victory for New Zealand.

The team will travel to Chennai on Wednesday following their game on Tuesday, while captain Rohit Sharma will travel to Ahmedabad for the yearly pre-World Cup Captains’ Day celebration. Thursday, October 5, marks the commencement of the World Cup.

* Information as of 22:30 IST on October 2, 2023.