The Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) decision to rest Virat Kohli from the Indian cricket team's upcoming tour of the West Indies has not gone well with former national selector Sarandeep Singh.
Sarandeep Singh has slammed both the Indian cricket board and Virat Kohli, questioning why a player who has been woefully out of form has been given a break a couple of months ahead of the T20 World Cup in Australia.
Virat Kohli has taken several breaks from international cricket this year. While he chose to skip the limited-overs leg of the home series against Sri Lanka and West Indies before the IPL, Virat Kohli then opted for rest from the five T20Is against South Africa in India.
During the current tour of England, Virat Kohli didn't feature in the first games of both the T20I and ODI series because of his continuing struggles on the pitch.
“I do not understand what is the meaning of rest? You can only rest if you are scoring 100s. We can understand if he is playing for the last 3 months, has scored 4/5 100s, he has got the liberty to take rest and then he can say he needs rest,” Sarandeep Singh told NDTV.
“Even before IPL, he played 2 Test matches, did not play ODIs and T20Is. Then after IPL, he did not play the T20Is against South Africa. Sitting out and resting will not help you to get back in form,” Sarandeep Singh further added.
Sarandeep Singh's remarks over Virat Kohli's unavailability for the West Indies tour came amid Kapil Dev's suggestions that the celebrated cricketer may have been dropped from Team India but BCCI could be keeping it under wraps.
“I can’t say a big player like Virat Kohli should be dropped. He is a very big player. If you have said that he has been rested to give him respect then there’s no harm in that,” Kapil Dev told ABP News.
“The most important part is how to bring such a player back in form? He’s not an ordinary cricketer. He should get more practice and play more matches to get his form back. I don’t think there’s any player in this world who is bigger than Kohli in T20s but when you are not doing well, the selectors can take their call. My thinking is that if anybody is not doing well then he can be rested or dropped,” Kapil Dev added.
“It’s not like India haven’t played without Virat in the last five to six years, but I want such a player to be back in form. Yes, he’s been dropped or rested but there’s still a lot of cricket left in him. And he has to create the path for that. Maybe play Ranji Trophy or score runs anywhere. His confidence needs to be back. This is the difference between a great and a good player. A great player like him shouldn’t take so much time to get back in form. He has to fight with himself and get things in order. Yes, it’s a bit of a concern that he is taking so much time to get back in form, a great player doesn’t take this long,” Kapil Dev continued.
“I don’t have any problems if he is dropped or rested but I want him to get back in form. One innings can change a great player’s fortune but when will that come, we don’t know. We are waiting for two years for that,” he summed up.
Virat Kohli was dismissed for 16 in the second match of India’s ODI series against England at Lord’s on Thursday. He had missed the first ODI due to a groin injury.
The opportunity was there for Virat Kohli to end his long wait for an international century after Team India lost skipper Rohit Sharma for zero early in their essay.
But as is often the case with Virat Kohli, he poked at a wide off-stump delivery only to offer an easy catch to wicketkeeper and England captain Jos Buttler at the historic ground in the British capital.
According to stats from cricket data tracking sites, more than 84 percent of Virat Kohli’s dismissals since 2019 have been on deliveries bowled outside the off-stump.
Before Virat Kohli joined the Rohit Sharma-led Team India in the second ODI, he featured in two T20I games against England but could only register scores of 1 and 11 in his innings at Edgbaston and Trent Bridge respectively.
Virat Kohli also took part in the fifth and fifth final Test against the Three Lions at Birmingham but couldn’t reignite his form as he was dismissed for 11 and 20 in his two knocks there.
In total, Virat Kohli has now gone 964 days and 77 innings without a century in international cricket with his last hundred coming against Bangladesh in the historic Pink-ball Test in Kolkata in 2019.
Follow Us
Subscribe