India captain Rohit Sharma has taken a dig at all those “experts”, including the legendary Kapil Dev, who have raised questions over Virat Kohli's spot in the national T20 team.

Virat Kohli failed to find his lost touch in the just-concluded T20I series against England as he could only register scores of 1 and 11 in his two innings against the Three Lions at Edgbaston and Trent Bridge.

After his twin failures in the fifth Test match against the same team in Birmingham, Virat Kohli came into both the T20I games with a different mindset. The 33-year-old superstar cricketer deployed an ultra-aggressive approach in the shortest format but still failed to get going as he lost his wicket early on both occasions.

After the third and final T20I against the hosts in which Virat Kohli made 11 off 6 balls, India skipper Rohit Sharma defended his predecessor.

Rohit Sharma claimed that he was upset with the so-called “experts” because they were making comments without being fully aware of the situation inside the Indian dressing room.

“It is not difficult for us as we do not listen to the outside noise. I don't know who the experts are. I don't even understand why they are called experts. They are watching it from the outside, they don't know what is going on inside. We are building a team, we have a certain thought process. A lot of deliberation goes behind it. There is a lot of thinking behind it. Boys are backed. Boys are given chances. People outside don't know all these things. It is not important what is going on outside,” Rohit Sharma said in the post-match press conference.

“If you talk of form, it goes up and down for everyone. The quality of a player never goes down and we should remember that. When you make certain comments, you should always remember that the quality of a player does not go down. We back that quality. It has happened with me, it has happened with XYZ, it has happened with everyone, it is nothing new. When some player has done so well consistently for so long, that can't be written off in one or two series or one or two years. It takes people time to understand it completely, but those who are running the team know the importance of that quality,” Rohit Sharma added.

Rohit Sharma was also asked about Virat Kohli's aggressive approach in the two T20I matches against England and he revealed that it had the backing of the Indian team management.

“It's a bit of both. We, as a team, want to play in a certain way, and every player needs to buy into that thought process. Otherwise, you know, it's not going to happen for you. And all the players, all the batters, who are part of this squad, are willing to take that extra risk and go and see what extra they can do with the bat,” Rohit Sharma elaborated.

“It's important to find out within yourself, you know, to try and do different kinds of things. Unless you try it, you will never be able to find out. So I think it is something that we have been trying to do for a while now. Some days it might come off, some days it might not. But we don't want to be afraid of going in and taking that extra risk. That's how we're going to learn as a team and that's how we will move forward as a team. So it's in everyone's thought process, everyone is quite comfortable with that idea. So yeah, that's the kind of direction the team is going to move in,” Rohit Sharma concluded.

Earlier, Kapil Dev's comments had led to a storm in India's cricketing circles.

“Yes, now the situation is such that you might be forced to bench Kohli from T20 playing eleven. If world No. 2 bowler Ashwin can be dropped from Test side then (once upon a time) world No. 1 batter can also be dropped,” Kapil Dev told ABP News.

“Virat is not batting at a level which we have seen him do over the years. He has made a name because of his performances but if he isn’t performing, then you can’t keep the performing youngsters out of the team. I want competition for places in team in a positive sense that these youngsters should try and outperform Virat,” Kapil Dev further said.

“Play in-form players when you have loads of options,” said Kapil. “You can’t just go by reputation but you have to look for current form. You can be an established player but that doesn’t mean that you will be given chances even if you fail five games in a row.”