He had opted out of the ongoing Tests against England due to personal reasons
ESPNcricinfo staff20-Feb-2024After missing the ongoing Test series against England for personal reasons, Virat Kohli has revealed that his wife Anushka Sharma has given birth to their second child. Kohli mentioned in an Instagram post that their son, whom the pair have named Akaay, was born on February 15.Kohli, who had been in Hyderabad ahead of the first Test of the ongoing series against England, left to be with his family and eventually expressed his unavailability for the entire series. Initially, he had made himself unavailable only for the first two games. India, who lead the five-match series 2-1, announced their squad for the final three Tests just over a week ago.
When Kohli and Anushka were due to have their first child, he had pulled out of the last three of the four Tests on the tour of Australia in 2020-21. With Kohli being India’s captain at the time, Ajinkya Rahane had stood in for the remaining three Tests.Kohli’s last played for India in mid-January when he was brought back into the T20 fold for a series against Afghanistan keeping in mind the World Cup that’s coming up on June 1.India also announced, on Tuesday, that they were resting Jasprit Bumrah for the fourth Test against England and that KL Rahul, who had initially stepped in for Kohli at the No. 4 spot in the batting order, is yet to regain full fitness.
