New Delhi (AFP) - India cricket captain Virat Kohli is set to marry long-time girlfriend and Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma in a much-anticipated wedding in Italy this week, according to media reports on Sunday (Dec 10).

Rumours started swirling when Kohli pulled out of India's limited-overs matches against Sri Lanka and Sharma also ducked out of her busy acting schedule in December.

Indian TV channels have gone into overdrive over what they have billed as the "wedding of the year".

"A heritage property within a resort in Tuscany is being decked up for the wedding," the Hindustan Times said on Sunday.

"Arrangements for a typically Punjabi wedding are reportedly being made by the wedding planner," the newspaper added, citing unnamed sources.

The celebrity couple and their families have reportedly flown out of India for the week-long celebrations.

A grand reception will be held on Dec 26 in Mumbai.

There has been no confirmation from the couple.

The Indian captain has said he needed to rest because of his "massive workload", ahead of the national side's tour of South Africa in January.

Kohli and Sharma, both 29, started dating in 2013 after they met during the filming of a shampoo advert.

The high-profile couple made their first public appearance a year later during a football match.

Kohli is one of the world's highest-paid athletes and a huge star in cricket-mad India, and Sharma is one of the top actresses in the multi-billion-dollar Indian film industry.

If the two stars do get hitched, theirs will be the latest in a list of Bollywood-cricket weddings.

From former India captain Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi and actress Sharmila Tagore to the recent Zaheer Khan-Sagarika Ghatge union, India has a long history of marriages between cricket players and movie stars.