‘Unfortunate to end up in U.A.E. early,’ says Virat Kohli
The Hindu
Virat Kohli hopes for a secure bio-bubble
India and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) captain Virat Kohli stated that COVID-19 has thrown the cricket schedule out of gear, and that “anything can happen”. Kohli arrived in UAE for the second leg of the IPL a few days earlier that planned, after the fifth Test between India and England was called off. The final Test at Manchester took the hit after members of the Indian contingent, including head coach Ravi Shastri, tested positive for COVID-19. “It is unfortunate that we had to end up here (in UAE) early, but with COVID-19, things are very uncertain. Anything can happen at any time.He has worn India’s blues, albeit in an Under-19 World Cup, with K.L. Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Harshal Patel and Jaydev Unadkat as his teammates. He has proudly adorned the Lion’s Crest — the famed Mumbai cricket logo — in all three formats. He has played with Yuvraj Singh, against Virat Kohli and Rahul Dravid and has the likes of Rahul and Joe Root in his illustrious list of dismissals. He is also a software developer for an IT giant, based in California. Virtually every middle-class Indian over the last three decades at some stage dreams of being either a cricketer or an IT professional. Saurabh Netravalkar has been combining two dreams, even after relocating to USA to pursue academics at the prestigious Cornell University in 2015.
Unlike most of the Olympic-bound athletes, who opt to train abroad before the big event, boxer Amit Panghal prefers training in home conditions prior to Paris 2024. A former World championships silver medallist and a World No. 1, Panghal won the 51kg quota place in the only chance he got. He wants to follow his own plans to script success in Paris.
The other men’s semifinal Friday is Norway’s Casper Ruud, twice the runner-up in Paris — to Rafael Nadal in 2022 and to Novak Djokovic in 2023 — against Germany’s Alexander Zverev, a finalist at the 2020 U.S. Open, an Olympic gold medalist and into the final four at Roland Garros for the fourth consecutive year.