Phil Simmons Not Bothered by Possible Absence of Virat Kohli in Historic Test

The much-awaited historic Test between India and Afghanistan is in danger of losing much of its shine. India skipper Virat Kohli’s participation in the game is in doubts as he is keen to play county cricket ahead of the tough England tour. However, Afghanistan coach Phil Simmons said the absence of big players including Kohli will not degrade the importance of the Test.

He further added that if Afghanistan went on to win, no one can undermine their feat against the world No. 1 Test side.

“If India play Afghanistan and Afghanistan win the Test, nobody will say Kohli wasn’t there, Cheteshwar Pujara wasn’t there or (Ajinkya) Rahane wasn’t there. It’s India’s choice what they do with their players,” said Simmons.

“If we win, we have beaten India. We will take that,” Phil Simmons added.

The game will be Afghanistan’s first in Tests. Last year, Afghanistan along with Ireland got the Test status from ICC. They came as the first admission in the game as a Full Member alongside Ireland since Bangladesh gained Test status in 2000.

Afghanistan have taken significant strides since being given the One-day International status in 2011. They qualified for the 2015 World Cup and won their first game in the tournament by beating Scotland.

Afghan team has also qualified for the upcoming World Cup by winning the ICC World Cup qualifiers earlier, this year.

The Test against Afghanistan will be followed by the tough tour of England.

India had disastrous outings in England during the last two tours. In 2011, they were thrashed by 4-0 before losing 3-1 in 2014.

On the last tour, Kohli was one of India’s worst performers. The current India skipper averaged just 13.40 in ten innings with a top score of 39. He was dismissed for single-digit scores on six occasions in the series.

Kohli, however, has come a long way since then. The reigning ICC player of the year has looked almost invincible in recent times.

And with India gearing up to tour England again, he is keen to make amends for his horror show on the last tour.

In order to prepare himself for the tour, Kohli has shown interest in playing county cricket.

He will play for Surrey in Division One of English county 2018 in June.

“Playing county cricket will help me improve my game. It’s just about giving yourself more opportunity to get used to the conditions that you are not used to,” Kohli had said earlier this month.

Also, Read: IPL 2018: Twitter Reacts as Suresh Raina’s Fifty Guides CSK to Competitive Total