[WATCH] AUS vs IND 2025: Virat Kohli touches down in Delhi from London ahead of international return

Indian cricketing legend Virat Kohli, who resides in London, arrived in New Delhi on Tuesday, October 14. The 36-year-old last played a competitive match for India on March 9, 2025, in Dubai. Kohli is

set to travel with the Indian team from Delhi to Australia on Wednesday, October 15, to participate in the three-match ODI series.

Several pictures and videos of Kohli at the airport have gone viral on social media, creating a buzz among fans. The tour will begin at Optus Stadium in Perth on October 19, followed by matches in Adelaide on October 23 and Sydney on October 25.

Kohli, India’s second-highest run-getter in ODIs, will play under the captaincy of Shubman Gill for the first time. During this series, he has the opportunity to surpass former Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara and become the second-highest run-scorer in ODI history. The Delhi batter has amassed 14,181 runs in 302 ODIs, while Sangakkara finished his career with 14,234 runs in 404 matches. Kohli is just 54 runs short of this milestone, which will take him next to Sachin Tendulkar, also known as, God of Cricket.

This tour will also mark Shubman Gill’s first leadership stint in ODIs, having recently taken over from Rohit Sharma. Gill became India’s Test captain earlier, guiding the team to a 2-2 drawn series against England and a 2-0 whitewash of the West Indies. Under his captaincy, India currently holds the third position in the World Test Championship (WTC) 2025-27 points table. Following the ODI series, the Men in Blue will also engage in five 20-over fixtures, led by Asia Cup-winning captain Suryakumar Yadav. 

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India squads for Australia tour 2025

ODI Squad: Shubman Gill (C), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer (VC), Axar Patel, KL Rahul (WK), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Dhruv Jurel (WK), Yashasvi Jaiswal

T20I Squad: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill (VC), Tilak Varma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Varun Chakaravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Sanju Samson (WK), Rinku Singh, Washington Sundar