“Religious figure in India”: Jacob Duffy praises Virat Kohli ahead of NZ vs IND ODI series 2026

As India and New Zealand prepare themselves for the multi-format series between them after the conclusion of the T20Is, the home side’s right-arm pacer, Jacob Duffy, has praised the senior Indian batter, Virat Kohli, addressing the later as a megastar and a very down-to-earth person. 

Virat Kohli was seen practicing hard before flying to New Zealand, where he has already started his practice session. The right-arm pacer was in superb form during their previous ODI series at home against the West Indies, starting with a fine century in the opening clash in Thiruvananthapuram. 

What did Jacob Duffy say about Virat Kohli? Full comments ahead of the ODI series

Three days before the beginning of the 50-over series, Duffy talked about Kohli and his time in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). 

“Virat Kohli is a religious figure in India. He is an absolute Megastar, just awesome. He's such a down-to-earth person. He's very welcoming to all players & that's very appreciable.” Duffy expressed in an interaction on Revsportz.

See Also: MCG to host T20 World Cup 2028 final, Perth and New Zealand get semi-finals: Report

“I got to see him [Kohli] yesterday. He was in the gym, obviously, so running into him there was cool, but he was awesome to me. He's got a great work ethic. Obviously, I bowled a lot to him in the nets because he was always the first batter and I was always the first bowler. We actually spent a lot of time facing each other in the nets, so that's quite cool.” He addressed in the same interaction about the Indian star. 

India and New Zealand prepare for the ODI series 2026: What to expect from the contest

The opening ODI of the series will be on November 04 at the Eden Park in Auckland before the action moves to the Hnry Stadium in Wellington. After the third clash at Seddon Park in Hamilton, the final two encounters will be at the Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui.

India’s squad for the first three ODIs vs NZ- Shubman Gill (c), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer (vice-captain), KL Rahul (wk.), Axar Patel, Naman Dhir, Anshul Kamboj, Gurnoor Brar, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Arshdeep Singh, Ishan Kishan [WK], Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Nitish Kumar Reddy (only for the first ODI), Auqib Nabi

See Also: Supreme Court suggests Virat Kohli and other celebrities promote firecracker-free Diwali campaign

India’s squad for the fourth and fifth ODIs vs NZ: Shreyas Iyer (c), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Tilak Varma, Ishan Kishan (wk., vice-captain), Axar Patel, Naman Dhir, Auqib Nabi, Gurnoor Brar, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Arshdeep Singh, Kumar Kushagra (w.k), Mohammed Siraj, Yash Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav