Virat Kohli was a happy man after his team won the Test series against Australia 2-1, made commendable by the fact that Kohli, India’s best player by a mile in recent times, was absent for the series-decider.
His injured shoulder had kept him out of action here but while Kohli insisted that playing at 50 percent fitness "would have been unfair to the team", there have been snide comments from certain quarters, including former Australian spinner Brad Hodge, that he was preserving himself for the monetarily more profitable Indian Premier League beginning April 5.
That may not happen, however. "It (the shoulder) will take a few more weeks to be completely match fit. It is still not fine as of now. I don’t know but the physio only will be able to give an official assessment of the time span (for recovery)," Kohli said after the game.
A few weeks would most likely rule him out of the initial stages of the IPL that kicks off in just over a week. Having played an incredible 54 consecutive Tests in the last few years, this was the first time Kohli had to sit out of a game after falling on his shoulder during the third Test at Ranchi.
"It is not nice. If it was a strain injury it would have been different but an impact injury really gave me no options. It was difficult watching from the outside when you have been in the thick of things all the time for so many years.
"I jerked my shoulder four times yesterday celebrating outside, that’s how much energy I had," he remarked.
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