Virat Kohli's life-size graffiti penetrates streets in Raipur ahead of 2nd ODI; See pics

India and New Zealand are all set to lock horns against each other in the second ODI of their three-match series on Saturday. The match is scheduled to take place at Raipur's Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium. Ahead of the game, a life-sized graffiti of former India captain Virat Kohli has come up on the walls in Raipur to welcome international stars into the city. The painting features Kohli with his arms spread in front of the Indian flag. 

Kohli recently moved up the table in the ICC ODI rankings. The former Indian skipper has moved up to fourth place in the rankings for batsmen. In the most recent ODI rankings, Virat climbed to 750 points, trailing players like Pakistan captain Babar Azam, who maintains the lead with 887 points, while South Africa’s Rassie van der Dussen is second with 766. His compatriot Quinton de Kock rounds up the top three with 759 points.

Kohli did not have a good match with the bat in the first ODI against New Zealand, as he was dismissed for just 8 runs. However, prior to that, Kohli scored two magnificent centuries during a three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka. Kohli won the Player of the Series award for his dominant performances against Dasun Shanaka’s men. He finished as the highest run-scorer of the series and scored a massive 166 runs in the third and final ODI to help his side win by a record margin of 317 runs. 

India vs New Zealand

As far as the first ODI between India and New Zealand is concerned, the Men in Blue defeated the Kiwis by 12 runs thanks to a brilliant knock from Shubman Gill, who smashed a double century to his name. Gill became the fifth as well as the youngest Indian batsman to score a double hundred in ODI cricket. He joined the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Rohit Sharma, and Ishan Kishan on the list. 

India’s ODI squad against New Zealand: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan (wk), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, KS Bharat (wk), Hardik Pandya (vice-captain), Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Shardul Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umran Malik.

Image: BCCI