Virat Kohli down with neck injury, will miss county stint with Surrey

Virat Kohli has been ruled out of his county stint with Surrey owing to his neck injury, the BCCI has clarified

cricket Updated: May 24, 2018 14:29 IST

The non-stop cricket through the long home season last one year seems to have taken its toll on Indian cricket team skipper Virat Kohli.(Getty Images)

Virat Kohli has been ruled out of his upcoming county stint with Surrey owing to a neck injury he suffered during Royal Challengers Bangalore’s recently-concluded Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) clarified in a press release on Thursday.

BCCI’s medical team assessed the injury sustained by Kohli, who also underwent scans and visited a specialist before coming to the decision of cancelling the county stint.

With a full-fledged bilateral series coming up against England this summer, Kohli will now undergo a period of rehabilitation under the BCCI medical team’s supervision.

The Indian skipper will later face a fitness test on June 15 at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore.

“The BCCI medical team is confident that Mr. Kohli will regain full fitness ahead of India’s upcoming tours to Ireland and England,” the cricket governing body stated in its press release.

Earlier, it had been reported in the media that a team of doctors had advised Kohli not to go ahead with the county stint as it might aggravate the situation.

A top BCCI official, privy to Kohli’s county engagements, had told PTI that it is a case of “neck sprain” and not a “slip disc injury” as reported.

Kohli had made elaborate plans to prepare for the Test series against England and the county stint with Surrey was to help him get acclimatised to English conditions. The prolific batsman had struggled in England in the 2014 tour, managing just 134 runs in five Tests -- at a very poor average of 13.4. Kohli’s Surrey stint was supposed to prepare him for the difficult swing that English pitches offer.

The stint had caused friction within the BCCI as it meant that Kohli would be missing India’s one-off test with Afghanistan. Kohli was set to play three Championship games as well as five domestic one-dayers for Surrey but that will not happen.