Watch Video | Virat Kohli’s passionate pep talk ahead of England Test

Indian batting icon Virat Kohli was seen giving a passionate pep talk to his teammates ahead of the practice session in Leicester. Under Rohit Sharma’s leadership, Team India is set to face England in the rescheduled fifth Test match.

Coach Rahul Dravid joins Test squad in Leicester

Kohli, Sharma and co. gather ahead of the warm-up game

In the lead-up to the fifth Test match, the visiting Indian team will play a four-day tour game against Leicestershire at Grace Road between June 23 and 26. The venue will also serve as India’s training base for a week before the action shifts to Edgbaston.

During the preparations, former Indian captain Kohli gave his teammates a motivational and passionate pep talk. The dynamic batter was India’s skipper on their last trip to England, where they played four of their five scheduled Tests.

Here is a look at Kohli’s passionate pep talk with his Indian teammates:

Meanwhile, Cheteshwar Pujara was recalled into the Test squad following his successful County stint for Sussex. 

Here is a look at the expanded Indian squadron for the five-day match.

India Test squad: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul (vc), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rishabh Pant (wk), KS Bharat (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohd Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Prasidh Krishna

The upcoming fifth Test was initially slated to be played last September. However, COVID-19 cases in the Indian camp disrupted the proceedings, and the two boards agreed to reschedule the series decider and merge it with India’s 2022 white-ball trip to England.

The final Test will be played at Edgbaston between July 1 and 5. After that, the tour will continue with the Men in Blue taking on the hosts in three T20Is and three ODI matches between July 7 and July 17.