Star batter Virat Kohli flew from Mumbai on Thursday (May 30) night to link up with his Indian teammates in New York for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024.

Before departing for the showpiece tournament in the Americas, Kohli met the United States Consulate General Mike Hankey and exchanged pleasantries and well wishes.

Hankey extended his best wishes to Kohli for the forthcoming ICC event. The official X handle of the US Consulate Mumbai shared the pictures of their interaction on Friday (May 31) morning.

Meanwhile, Virat Kohli said he never thought of playing cricket in the United States. The USA and the West Indies are hosting the ninth edition of the T20 World Cup, starting on June 1.

“Honestly, I never thought we would be playing cricket in any form in the States. But now it’s a reality. And that tells you about the growing impact of the sport in the world and the United States is more than willing to accept the change and be probably the first ones on a global scale to accept it, in a way, with the World Cup. I think, it’s a great start. It’s the ideal way to begin and it’s going to have a huge impact. And in starting off, a kind of a domino effect and I hope it carries on for a long period of time,” Kohli said in a video shared by US Consulate Mumbai on X.

“We have enough people from our regions to keep the game up and alive in the States and make the others more aware about what it feels like to play and watch cricket. And I think, it’s got great potential, with the MLC as well. There is already franchise cricket happening there. So I think, it’s moving in the right direction,” he added.

Virat Kohli will enter the T20 World Cup on the back of his stunning exploits in the IPL 2024 season, where he amassed 741 runs in 15 innings at an average of 61.75 and a strike rate of 154.69, including one hundred and five half-centuries.

Kohli finished the season as the leading run-getter, helping RCB qualify for the playoffs despite winning only one of their initial eight matches.