India’s batting coach Sitanshu Kotak on Saturday (February 8) confirmed that star batter Virat Kohli has recovered from his knee injury and will be available for selection in the second ODI against England.

Having won the first ODI in Nagpur, India are leading the three-match series 1-0. The penultimate game will be held in Cuttack on Sunday (February 9).

"Virat Kohli is fit to play. He has come for practice and is good to go," Kotak told mediapersons on the eve of the second ODI.

However, Kotak remained non-committal when enquired about team selection, involving Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shreyas Iyer.

"It is captain (Rohit Sharma) and coach's (Gautam Gambhir) call. I can't answer this," Kotak replied.

The batting coach also addressed concerns about skipper Rohit Sharma's recent performance, describing it as a mere "lean patch".

Notably, Rohit scored 2 off 7 balls in the ODI series opener against England at Nagpur on Thursday (February 6). He tried to flick a delivery from Saqib Mahmood off his pads, only to top edge the ball straight into the hands of Liam Livingstone.

Rohit's scores during the 2024/25 season across formats read 6, 5, 23, 8, 2, 52, 0, 8, 18, 11, 3, 6, 10, 3, 9 and 2, with a sum total of 166 runs from 16 innings at a terrible average of 10.37.

Coming to the first ODI, India defeated England by four wickets at the VCA Stadium. Riding on impressive spells from Ravindra Jadeja (3-26 in 9 overs) and Harshit Rana (3-53 in 7 overs), the hosts bundle out England for 248 in 47.4 overs.

In reply, the Men in Blue were struggling at 19/2 before Shreyas Iyer came to the crease. The middle-order batter added 94 runs for the third wicket with Shubman Gill to bail India out of trouble.

While Shreyas fell after scoring 59 off 36 balls, Gill (87 off 96) and Axar Patel (52 off 47) slammed decisive half-centuries to put India in a commanding position. They got out on the brink of victory, but India overhauled the target in 38.4 overs.

(With TOI Inputs)