The highly-awaited Ram Mandir inauguration is all set to take place on 22nd January 2024 in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya. India’s Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi will mark his presence as the chief guest along with other big names in the country.
Among them, several legendary cricketers have also been invited to attend the Ram Temple ‘Pran Pratishtha’ ceremony. Sachin Tendulkar was the first one to receive an invitation and on Monday, MS Dhoni also received the invitation too at his residence by Senior RSS functionary Dhananjay Singh.
BJP secretary, Karamveer Singh, who also went with Dhananjay Singh told PTI:
“We handed over the invitation card to him (Dhoni) on behalf of the Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust for the Pran Pratishtha ceremony of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya on January 22.”
Besides MS Dhoni and Sachin Tendulkar, former Indian captain, Virat Kohli, along with his wife Anushka Sharma, has also received an invitation for the ‘Pran Pratishtha’ ceremony.
Several other celebrities who have been invited to the event include Akshay Kumar, Kangana Ranaut, Tiger Shroff, Jackie Shroff, Hariharan, Rajinikanth, Amitabh Bachchan, Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt and Randeep Hooda.
The ‘Pran Prathishtha’ will likely conclude by 1 PM IST. Notably, the general public isn’t allowed to visit the temple for darshan on the 20th and 21st of January 2023.
Virat Kohli has taken permission from BCCI to attend the Ram Mandir Inauguration
The Indian team will play the final T20I of the three-match series against Afghanistan on Wednesday before going back to their respective homes. The Indian team will then reassemble on 20th January in Hyderabad for a four-day practice session.
The five-match Test series against England starts on 25th January at the Uppal Stadium in Hyderabad. After hitting the nets on 21st January, Virat Kohli will take a day off to attend the ceremony in Ayodhya.
He will rejoin the camp the next day. Meanwhile, the Indian team have taken an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series against Afghanistan. The Men in Blue registered comprehensive wins in the first two games and would be looking to make it a 3-0 clean sweep on Wednesday.
In the last game, Afghanistan had posted a total of 172 runs in the first innings but the Indian team made a mockery of that, chasing it down in just 15.4 overs. Shivam Dube, once again, stole the limelight with his brutal power-hitting.
Striking at 196, he smashed 63 off just 32 balls. Yashasvi Jaiswal also wreaked havoc with the bat as he smashed 68 off just 34 balls. The third and final T20I will take place on Wednesday at M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
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