Former India captain Virat Kohli had to leave the squad for a brief period on Tuesday to return home to Mumbai as he was going to receive the invitation for the Ram Mandir Pran Pratishtha' ceremony in Ayodhya on January 22.
Kohli and his wife Anushka Sharma got the invitations by the Ram Mandir Trust at their residence.
The list of VVIPs also includes RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, Yoga guru Ramdev, and industrialists Mukesh Ambani, Ratan Tata, and Gautam Adani among others.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be headlining the event next Monday.
Kohli is the fourth cricketer to be invited for the Ram Mandir Consecration after Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni and Harbhajan Singh. Cricketer-turned-BJP MP Gautam Gambhir will also be attending the auspicious event.
The 35-year-old had to specially fly in from Indore where India played the second T20 international against Afghanistan on Sunday.
Kohli returned to T20I cricket after nearly 14 months and scored 29 runs in India's 6-wicket win at the Holkar Stadium which gave the hosts a 2-0 lead in the 3-match series.
Kohli took a flight from the private airport in Kalina to go to Bengaluru where India will play the third and final T20I at the M Chinnaswamy stadium on January 17. He landed in the garden city in the evening.
The match will be India's last as a team before the T20 World Cup 2024 in the West Indies and USA in June.
