India captain Virat Kohli has opted to play county cricket for the first time in his career in a bid to improve his dismal record in England, according to a report by the Times of India.
Kohli, 29, is now set to travel to England after completing his Indian Premier League (IPL) engagements with the Royal Challengers Bangalore in June to join up with Surrey.
In doing do, Kohli will become the first Indian player to sign up with the county outfit from south London.
The batting maestro has struggled previously while batting on English conditions, scoring only 134 runs in five Tests so far at a miserly average of 13.40. India will be undertaking a long tour of England this summer, playing five Tests, three ODIs and as many T20Is with the first Test set to get under way on August 1.
This means that Kohli will miss India’s lone Test against Afghanistan in June, which will be the historic first for the war-torn country after gaining full ICC membership last year.
Kohli’s record in England leaves a lot to be desired.
Kohli has spoken about his desire to play county cricket previously, though his engagements with the national team and the IPL have mean he’s been unable to do so until now.
Only last month, former World Cup winning skipper Kapil Dev had urged Kohli to take up a stint in county cricket to better prepare himself for the tour of England.
Surrey are scheduled to play three four-day matches against Hampshire, Somerset and Yorkshire in the month of June, all of which Kohli could feature in. He will be joined in his county stint by Cheteshwar Pujara and Ishant Sharma who had signed up for Yorkshire and Sussex respectively earlier.