India captain Virat Kohli and his teammates wore black armbands during the first T20I against Australia on Sunday to pay respect to the martyrs in the Pulwama terror attack.

40 soldiers from India's Central Reserve Police Force lost their lives in a ghastly attack in Pulwama, Jammu and Kashmir on February 14. Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed claimed responsibility for the attack in which an explosive-laden SUV rammed into a bus carrying the CRPF personnel.

Notably, captain Kohli walked out for the toss wearing a black armband at the Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium. India eventually lost the toss to Australia, who opted to bowl in the first of the two-match T20I series, which will be followed by a five-match ODI series.

Notably, the ongoing limited-over series vs Australia will be the final international assignment before the World Cup, starting May 30. The ODI series between India and Australia will start on March 2.

Meanwhile, several members of the Indian cricket fraternity, including legendary names Sourav Ganguly and Harbhajan Singh, have been calling for India to boycott the 2019 World Cup game against Pakistan, scheduled for June 16 in Manchester.

In the aftermath of the attack on CRPF soldiers, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is seeking to isolate Pakistan from the World Cup in England and Wales. 10 teams, including the South Asian cricketing giants, will compete for the coveted prize in world cricket.

India Today has learnt that Committee of Administrators (CoA) Vinod Rai has spoken to Sports Ministry, the external affairs secretary as well as the home ministry about a possible boycott of Pakistan from international cricket and not just in the upcoming World Cup. Rai also confirmed that the government is also in sync with the strategy to isolate and ostracize Pakistan from the sports fraternity.

India Today had earlier learnt that the BCCI CEO Rahul Johri left for Dubai at 8pm on Saturday night and will start informal dialogues with the member boards by Sunday evening.

BCCI will first seek to align England with India because England is the World Cup hosting board. England also don't travel to Pakistan for bilateral cricket and that's what the BCCI will use.

They feel if they get 2-3 boards on their side to express the same sentiment, the process to isolate Pakistan would have begun in earnest.