NEW DELHI: Star Indian batter Virat Kohli reportedly underwent a fitness test in England, putting to rest all speculations about his absence, after other Indian cricketers, including ODI captain Rohit Sharma, cleared it at the BCCI's Centre of Excellence (CoE) last week.
The former captain Kohli is the first among the current Indian players to undergo a fitness test outside the country. Last seen in action during IPL 2025, the star batter is expected to make his international return in October for the ODI series against Australia.
According to Dainik Jagran, Kohli's fitness test in England was conducted under the supervision of the BCCI. A source told the publication that Kohli would have required the board's approval to take the test abroad. In contrast, all other Indian players, including Rohit underwent their fitness assessments at the CoE in Bengaluru.
The report adds that Ravindra Jadeja, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Akash Deep, and Nitish Reddy are scheduled to undergo their fitness assessments later this month. Alongside them, players who missed the initial round due to injury or illness will also be tested.
Those who have already cleared their fitness tests at the BCCI's Centre of Excellence include Rohit, Mohammed Siraj, Shubman Gill, Jitesh Sharma, Prasidh Krishna, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Abhishek Sharma, Harshit Rana, Shreyas Iyer, Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Rajat Patidar, Ravi Bishnoi, Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube, Mohammed Shami, Varun Chakravarthy, Mukesh Kumar, Hardik Pandya, Sarfaraz Khan, Tilak Varma, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Dhruv Jurel, Shardul Thakur, Washington Sundar, and Yashasvi Jaiswal.
The opening phase of testing primarily evaluated recovery patterns and core strength, with the majority of players successfully meeting the required parameters.
