Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma took to Twitter to request their fans to stay at home during the nationwide 21-day lockdown, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday. "These are testing times and we need to wake up to the seriousness of this situation. Please let us all follow what's been told to us and stand united, please. It's a plea to everyone," Virat Kohli captioned the 51-second-long video on Twitter. Earlier, the Indian captain made a humble appeal to the fellow Indian citizens to follow the fresh guidelines issued by PM Modi to stop the coronavirus from spreading.
Addressing the nation, PM Modi announced that the country will be under complete lockdown for the next 21 days, starting Tuesday midnight.
Welcoming the move, Indian skipper Kohli requested the fellow countrymen to "stay at home" for the next 21 days as "social distancing is the only cure" available with us which can stop Covid-19 from spreading.
"As our Honourable Prime Minister, Shri @NarendraModi ji just announced, the whole country is going into a lockdown starting midnight today for the next 21 days. My request will remain the same, PLEASE STAY AT HOME. #SocialDistancing is the only cure for Covid 19", Kohli tweeted.
The coronavirus pandemic has brought the world sports to a grinding halt. India's three-match One-day International home series against South Africa was called off amid the COVID-19 scare.
The 2020 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) has been postponed until April 15 due to the deadly virus.
Following the announcement of the nationwide lockdown, the cancellation of this year's IPL looks inevitable.
Speaking to PTI, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly did not have much to say on the current scenario, which was made worse by the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics to the summer of 2021, on Tuesday. The global COVID-19 death toll is nearing 19,000.
"I can't say anything at the moment. We are at the same place where we were on the day we postponed. Nothing has changed in the last 10 days. So, I don't have an answer to it. Status quo remains," Ganguly's helplessness was palpable.