WATCH: Virat Kohli makes polite request to surrounding fans in Rishikesh; 'Ashram hai yeh'

Former India captain Virat Kohli is currently on a break from cricket to spend time with his family ahead of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (Test series) against Australia. Kohli recently visited an ashram in Rishikesh with his wife and Bollywood actor Anushka Sharma. In pictures doing rounds on social media, Kohli can be seen praying to Swami Dayanand Ji Maharaj’s samadhi at Swami Dayanand Ashram in the Himalayan city. 

Meanwhile, footage of Kohli has also gone viral on Twitter, where the 34-year-old can be heard requesting his fans not to shoot a video of him at that place. The video shows Kohli surrounded by his fans as he obliged for autographs while in the ashram. "Bhai ashram hai yaar," Kohli was heard telling a fan who was trying to shoot a video of him. 

The recent visit comes just weeks after the couple’s trip to Neem Karoli Baba’s ashram and their visit to a spiritual guru in Vrindavan. After returning to the team following his last spiritual journey, Kohli smashed two ODI centuries in three matches against Sri Lanka and took his tally of international hundreds to 74. It is understood that Kohli made the spiritual visit to the ashram in Rishikesh, seeking blessing for the upcoming four-match Test series against Australia.

India are scheduled to play a four-match Test series against Australia starting February 9. The first match will be played in Nagpur, followed by Delhi, Dharamsala, and Ahmedabad. 

India vs Australia, four-match Test series: Full squads

India’s Test squad for the first two Tests against Australia: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), R. Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Suryakumar Yadav.

Australia’s squad for Test series against India: Pat Cummins (c), Steve Smith (vc), Ashton Agar, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Lance Morris, Todd Murphy, Matthew Renshaw, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warne.

Image: Twitter