LONDON: While those he has led as Test captain for more than three years play a historic game in Bangalore, Virat Kohli will be half a world away, preparing for a County Championship game in Surrey’s colors, against Somerset.
The ground in Guildford can hold 4,500 spectators, and even if half as many turn up to watch one of world cricket’s marquee names, that attendance will still be dwarfed by the crowd that will be watching India against Afghanistan in their inaugural Test.
Since he took over from MS Dhoni as Test skipper in 2015, Kohli has missed just one game, against Australia in Dharamsala back in March 2017 because of a shoulder injury. It is only now, a few months short of his 30th birthday, that the world’s finest all-format batsman has started skipping the odd limited-overs assignment to keep fatigue at bay.
To understand why he would choose three county championship games over a Test against the sport’s Cinderella side, you have to leaf through the recent chapters of Indian cricket history. For four decades, since Bhagwat Chandrasekhar’s 6 for 38 inspired a thrilling victory at The Oval in the summer of 1971, tours of England were generally happy affairs.
There was the 3-0 drubbing in 1974, when India were skittled out for 42 at Lord’s, but that aside, most of the contests were closely fought. India won in 1986 (2-0) and 2007 (1-0) and drew in 2002 (1-1). In 29 Tests across four decades, they won five and lost eight.
It helped that before and after the summer of “Mill Reef” — Chandra’s unplayable quick delivery named after the Epsom Derby winner — many of their players did their time on the English county circuit and
became familiar with the conditions. Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, even after he tragically lost an eye in a road accident, has pride of place in Sussex lore. Farokh Engineer, the dashing wicketkeeper-batsman, became a local hero at Lancashire, while Bishan Singh Bedi was a Northamptonshire stalwart until his assertion that John Lever used Vaseline strips to tamper with the ball on the tour of India in 1976-77 soured the relationship.
Sunil Gavaskar, whose epic 221 nearly led India to a famous victory at The Oval in 1979, spent the following summer with Somerset. Kapil Dev had a stint with Northants, and Ravi Shastri — the current coach — with Glamorgan. In 1992, Sachin Tendulkar, then just 19, became the first overseas professional to play for Yorkshire.
There were others too. Mohammad Azharuddin, whose batting so charmed the English in 1990, played for Derbyshire in subsequent seasons. In 2000, it was Rahul Dravid’s stint at Kent that partly paved the way for John Wright to become India’s first foreign coach. And toward the end of his career, VVS Laxman played 18 games for Lancashire.
But with the advent of the Indian Premier League in 2008, the exodus to England to play either the county championship or league cricket — both Vinoo Mankad (1952) and Madan Lal (1986) were called up from their clubs to play for the national team — slowed to a trickle.
The early, cold part of the summer, when batting conditions tend to be most tricky, now clashes with the IPL.
The impact of that lack of familiarity has been seen on the pitch in the last two tours. Fatigue was a mitigating factor in 2011 when India were routed 4-0 — even players that begged for breaks during the IPL were not given them — but there were no such excuses when Alastair Cook’s side came from 1-0 down to win 3-1 in 2014. Kohli finished that series with 134 from 10 innings, and faced criticism that he could not handle quality swing-and-seam bowling.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has already said that it will make every effort to get the long-form specialists over to England in June, soon after the Afghanistan game, even though the Test series starts at the beginning of August. Kohli, whose preparation and attention to detail are second to none, is just going that extra yard.
Away from the media scrutiny he loathes — though you can rest assured half a dozen Indian TV channels, at least, will shadow his every move — Kohli will hope that Hampshire, Somerset and Yorkshire play their strongest sides. Having made five Test centuries in Australia, and two magnificent tons in South Africa, he is steeling himself to erase the one question mark against his formidable name.
India captain Virat Kohli has county cricket plan to prepare for England tour
India captain Virat Kohli has county cricket plan to prepare for England tour
Lee, Hellgren, Kim secure 2026 LIV Golf wild cards
- Canada’s Richard T. Lee claims victory at Black Diamond Ranch in Florida
LECANTO: A dominant performance by Richard T. Lee of Canada. A clutch low round for Sweden’s Bjorn Hellgren. And an inspirational return for American Anthony Kim.
All three players had reason to celebrate at Black Diamond Ranch on Sunday afternoon after securing the three wild card spots available through this week’s LIV Golf Promotions. The trio joins International Series qualifiers Scott Vincent and Yosuke Asaji as the five wild cards who will compete in the 13 regular season tournaments during the 2026 LIV Golf League season, which opens in Riyadh on Feb. 4-7.
While Lee and Hellgren will make their LIV Golf debuts in Saudi Arabia, Kim returns for his third season as a wild card player. He came out of a 12-year retirement from professional golf to join LIV Golf in 2024 but was relegated after last season. Earning a spot for 2026 reflects the considerable progress he has made in recent months.
“There were definitely low moments throughout those two years,” Kim said. “But I believe in myself more than anybody else believes in me, and I think that’s all that matters. I felt like I would earn my spot back if I did get relegated, which I did. I felt like if I just kept my foot on the gas and just kept grinding that great things were going to happen.”
Lee, meanwhile, completed an impressive weeklong effort with a final-round 5-under 65, leaving him at 11 under for the 36-hole weekend shootout for a five-shot victory over Hellgren, his nearest competitor.
The 35-year-old becomes the first Canadian to earn a spot on LIV Golf and he did it in style, shooting rounds of 64, 66, 64 and 65 over the four days, including the first two 18-hole knockout rounds that whittled the initial field of 78 players down to the 22 competing this weekend.
“It’s not sunk in yet, to be honest,” said Lee, who suffered just two bogeys all week, one of those coming late on Sunday when he already had a spot wrapped up. “Twenty-one under on this course is absolutely amazing. I’m very pleased with my game right now.”
Hellgren shot an even-par 70 on Saturday, leaving him outside the top 10 on Sunday. The 35-year-old, who won the Saudi Open presented by PIF last month, had to play aggressively to make up strokes.
He opened with consecutive birdies and overcame a couple of bogeys midway through his round, finishing it off with four birdies in his final six holes to shoot a 6-under 64, matching the course record set by Lee earlier in the week.
“Starting the day, we knew what we had to do,” Hellgren said. “We had to shoot a low one today. We had to basically go all in.”
Kim was in better shape to start the day, in the primary chase pack after shooting a 66 on Saturday. Through 10 holes on Sunday, he was even par for the day and in a three-way tie for the third and final spot with two Thailand golfers, Jazz Janewattananond and Sarit Suwannarut.
Kim then birdied the par-4 11th with a 20-foot putt to create separation, then battled hard to maintain it. The par-4 14th was a key moment, as he twice overcame tricky lies near bunkers, eventually saving par with a 15-foot putt. By the time he reached the 18th hole, he was three shots clear of fourth place and could afford a final bogey.
“Felt like if I made that putt, it could really swing the momentum,” Kim said of the 14th. “I beared down and holed it.”
Lee and Hellgren are both looking forward to the step up in competition with LIV Golf, with a field that includes champions such as Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson and others.
“Definitely have to hit it longer to keep up with those guys and maybe get my short game a little bit sharper,” Lee said.
“Obviously this is going to change our life, for my family,” Hellgren added. “But it’s still just a tournament, and I’m sure I’ll be going to Riyadh to try to win because I like the feeling of winning.”
Kim, meanwhile, is glad just to have another season on LIV Golf. Sunday’s outcome was arguably the biggest moment of his two-year return to the sport.
“There’s a ton of satisfaction,” Kim said at the end of his press conference. “I’m sure I’ll understand that all that work has really shown this week, maybe later tonight when I’m drinking an iced tea. It means a lot to me because three years ago, doctors told me that I potentially had two weeks to live. So just to be here standing in front of you guys is a blessing.”
