Team India is in action today in the World Cup as they face asian rivals Bangladesh at the MCA stadium in Pune. Bangladesh are missing their regular skipper Shakib Al Hasan due to quad injury and Najmul Hossain Shanto led the team. He opted to bat first after winning the toss and while India would’ve hoped for an early wicket, they suffered a huge blow with Hardik Pandya getting injured.
India’s star all-rounder got injured while trying to stop the ball off his own bowling in the 9th over. Physio attended him for quite some time and Hardik even tried bowling post the treatment, but to no avail and eventually walked off the field. However, even then, the crowd started cheering as former India skipper Virat Kohli took the bal in his hand to complete Hardik’s over.
Kohli bowled the remaining three balls of the over and conceded two runs. This is the first time, Virat Kohli bowled in the World Cup since the semifinal fixture against Australia in 2015. Moreover, this is also the first time Kohli bowled in ODI cricket since August 2017 against Sri Lanka in Colombo.
How is Virat Kohli’s record as bowler?
Interestingly, Virat Kohli has bowled only in 49 innings in his ODI career so far and has picked up four wickets. He has sent down a total of 107 overs in his ODI career and bowled a maiden as well. The man hasn’t bowled regularly over the last decade or so and didn’t take the ball in hand at all after 2017.
Here’s the video:
For the same reason, the crowd was left stunned to see Kohli take the ball in hand and the cheer followed. The video of the same has gone viral on social media. It remains to be seen now if the 34-year-old will bowl more and it will depend on Pandya’s fitness in the rest of the match.