"Everybody following footsteps of Kohli" - Fans react as Rohit Sharma and family visit Tirupati Balaji Temple

Team India captain Rohit Sharma, along with his wife Ritika Sajdeh and daughter Samaira, visited the famous Tirupati Balaji Temple in Andhra Pradesh recently. Videos and images of their visit have gone viral on social media.

Rohit led the Indian team recently during the ongoing tour of West Indies. He was captain for the two Test matches, and while he led the side in the first ODI, he was rested for the second and third one-dayers of the series, with all-rounder Hardik Pandya taking charge.

Rohit was not selected in the squad for the five-match T20I series and is set to return for the Asia Cup 2023, which will be played in Sri Lanka and Pakistan from August 30 to September 17.

Ahead of the key tournament, which is being seen as a build-up to the ODI World Cup in India later in the year, Rohit visited the famed Tirupati Balaji Temple with his family to seek divine intervention.

While a cricketer visiting a spiritual place is not something new, a lot of cricket fans on X (formerly known as Twitter) compared Rohit’s visit to Kohli’s recent spiritual sojourns. The latter has visited a number of religious places, including the Dayanand Giri Ashram in Rishikesh and the Mahakaleshwar Temple in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, among others.

Here are some reactions to Rohit’s visit to the Tirupati Balaji Temple:

“Everybody following footsteps of kohli saab” - @yashhverse

“Copying Kohli” - RAjJosh32992266

“Following kohli's path” - @NiharRa30315128

“He thinks he's kohli 😭😭” - @hyperkohli

“Ab criticism hoga inka bhi. Temple run karen to bhi criticism, na kare to bhi criticism. Khair, I guess they are now used to it and take it in their stride too. Public apna kaam kar rahi, as long as Rohit scores runs, sab badhiya hi hai!” - @pathikj80

“If praying gave us ICC trophy, we would have never lost a single event” - @Aditya73927510

“Just to get his form back which wont come easily” - @puripaw1

“Asia Cup Trophy 🏆Loading” - @jayantjeriya26

“World cup loading 🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵” - @sportyjayas

Like Rohit, Kohli has also been rested for the T20I series against West Indies.

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"No one is an automatic selection, even I am not" - Rohit Sharma ahead of Asia Cup

Speaking ahead of the Asia Cup, Indian captain Rohit made it clear that no one, including himself, is an automatic choice for the World Cup. On the sidelines of a LaLiga event, he commented:

“No one is an automatic (selection), even I am not. We have this thing where nobody is guaranteed a spot. We cannot say that ‘you are there after all’ or things like that. Yes, some players know that they are going to play but at this point in time, playing three ODIs in the West Indies was a good opportunity to look at a few guys. In the Asia Cup, again, we will face good opposition."

India will begin their Asia Cup 2023 campaign with a match against Pakistan in Pallekele on September 2.