When every Indian cricketer turned up at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru for their fitness test, one prominent name missing from the list was Virat Kohli. But why didn’t he show up?
Turns out, King Kohli had his own London edition of the test! In fact, according to a report in Dainik Jagran, He was the only active player cleared to complete his drills abroad, where he now lives with his family.
He had asked the BCCI for special permission, and they agreed. But many fans questioned this differential treatment, with some even arguing that if it weren’t Kohli making the request, it might not have been approved.
Reports suggested that Virat was the only player to undergo his fitness test outside India, with no other cricketer requesting a similar exemption. When asked about the matter, a BCCI official reportedly remarked that a player of Virat’s stature would have formally sought approval for such an arrangement. However, the report also pointed out that it remains unclear whether the same leeway would be granted to any other player making a similar request.
That said, it’s not as if Kohli was handed some extraordinary privilege. This fitness test was meant mainly for Asia Cup–bound cricketers, and Virat doesn’t even play T20Is anymore.
Full list of players who took the fitness test:
Rohit Sharma, Mohammed Siraj, Shubman Gill, Jitesh Sharma, Prasidh Krishna, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Abhinav Manohar, Rinku Singh, Avesh Khan, Axar Patel, Suryakumar Yadav, Ravi Bishnoi, Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube, Mohammed Shami, Varun Chakravarthy, Mukesh Kumar, Hardik Pandya, Sarfaraz Khan, Tilak Varma, Umran Malik, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Dhruv Jurel, Shardul Thakur, Washington Sundar, and Yashasvi Jaiswal.
However, some players like Ravindra Jadeja and Rishabh Pant were also exempted because of injuries. And a few others, like KL Rahul, Akash Deep Singh, and Nitish Kumar Reddy, are scheduled to take their fitness tests in Phase 2.
So yes, on the surface, it looks like Kohli got a London luxury pass, but in reality, exemptions were handed out to others too, just in different forms.
