The Buzz
Pant puts in guest appearance at India training session
ESPNcricinfo staff
16-Jan-2024
Rishabh Pant made a brief appearance at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium during India's training session on the eve of the third and final T20I against Afghanistan.
Sporting a black t-shirt and shorts, Pant appeared chirpy (from a distance, where we were perched), cracked jokes, fooled around with Virat Kohli, which included a lot of shirt tugging and loud laughter. He then went to chat with some the other players, like Rinku Singh and Shivam Dube, before chatting with Rohit Sharma for a bit.
Pant also shadow-practiced with a bat, but - crucially - still didn't look like he was 100% comfortable walking. He seemed to hobble a bit.
Full postTamil Nadu players make their own basketball fun
ESPNcricinfo staff
15-Jan-2024
The only thing that we're passing across a buffet table is another helping of food - but Tamil Nadu's players find a way to improvise a quick basketball game during a delay in their Ranji match against Tripura in Agartala.
Full postHow Kohli and Djokovic began texting
They haven't met yet in person, but that hasn't stopped them from admiring each other's GOATness
ESPNcricinfo staff
14-Jan-2024
Virat Kohli and Novak Djokovic have never met each other in person, but they are friends on Instagram.
"Virat Kohli and I have been texting a little bit for a few years. We never got the chance to meet in person, but it was an honour and privilege to listen to him speak nicely about me," Djokovic said on Sony Sports. "I admire his career and his achievements. I started to play cricket. I'm not very good at it. I have a task to perfect my cricket skills before I get to India so that I don't embarrass myself when I am there."
Kohli revealed that when he tried to get in touch with Djokovic, he found that Novak had already slid into his DMs. "I got in touch with Novak very organically. When I saw his profile on Instagram, I pressed the message button, I thought I would just message him. Then I saw his message already on my DM," Kohli told bcci.tv. "I had never opened it. It was the first time I had opened my own messages. And he's messaged me himself. So first I thought let me just check, maybe it's a fake account. Then I checked again, it was legitimate. Then we got talking.
"When I got 50th ODI century recently, Novak Djokovic put out a story, and sent me a nice message as well so there is mutual admiration and respect - really nice to connect with global athletes who are excelling at a high level. I have a lot of respect for him and his journey… his passion for fitness is something I dearly follow myself. So there was a lot to connect on."
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