Reports: Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma to get married in Italy next week

What’s the story?

According to various reports on the internet, it has been learnt that the Indian captain Virat Kohli’s much-awaited wedding with long-time girlfriend Anushka Sharma is set to take place in the second week of December this year in Italy. Tentative dates are December 9, 10, 11 and 12. Reports also add that Virat, who has been rested for the limited-overs series against Sri Lanka, might leave for Italy for the wedding tomorrow (December 7).

Anushka Sharma's bridal wear will be designed by renowned Kolkata based fashion designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee. These reports emerged after Mukherjee was spotted exiting Anushka's house last week.

In case you didn’t know...

Virat and Anushka first met each other on the sets of a shampoo commercial and fell in love at first sight. However, Kohli himself revealed his relationship with Anushka only a few months ago, when he started posting pictures with her on his Instagram account.

Since then, several reports of their marriage have emerged time and again.

The heart of the matter

Reports also add that the wedding in Milan, Italy will be a private affair in which the invitees will be limited to family and very close relatives. However, for the Bollywood and cricket fraternity, a special reception will be held in Mumbai on December 21.

Earlier, Virat's childhood coach, Rajkumar Sharma, who is also the coach of the Under-23 Delhi team, excused himself from a match on December 7, citing his ‘nephew's’ wedding as the reason for the same.

Parallels from history

Last week, another Bollywood-cricket couple, Zaheer Khan and Sagarika Ghatge tied the knot in Mumbai. A grand reception was thrown at the city’s Taj Palace Hotel, which was attended by several from the film and sports industry.

Other famous romantic liaisons between Bollywood/modelling and cricket include Yuvraj Singh and Hazel Keech, Harbhajan Singh and Geeta Basra, Mohammad Azharuddin and Sangeeta Bijlani and Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi and Sharmila Tagore.

Author’s Take

Given that both Anushka and Virat are stalwarts of their own field, their wedding would have been an ideal feast for the paparazzi in India. In order to avoid that, choosing Italy as the wedding destination seems the most appropriate decision by the lovebirds. Their wedding has been a much-awaited event for their fans, who will be pleased to see the two tying the knot, in pictures at least.