The chorus for Virat Kohli's ouster from India's T20 side is growing with each passing day. First, it was Wasim Jaffer and Karsan Ghavri, and then it was the legendary Kapil Dev, who raised questions about continuing with Virat Kohli in the T20Is despite the Delhi-born cricketer being woefully out of form. On Saturday, another former India star, namely Ajay Jadeja called for Virat Kohli's removal from the national T20 team.
“You have been shown that there is another way of playing the same game. You are still scoring around 180 to 200. It's not that the game has changed, but you have a choice of how you want to play. I think Rohit Sharma will be making that call,” Ajay Jadeja told Sony Sports.
“I think anyone who is leading the side has only two choices. That's the way I see it. Either you stick to the way you have been playing, give opportunities to youngsters or you go back to your old team that played before you started trying to give opportunities,” Ajay Jadeja added.
“Virat Kohli is a special player. If it wasn't Virat Kohli, he wouldn't have probably playing Test cricket as well,” he elaborated.
“You look at the numbers and say ‘oh, over the last 8, 10 matches, he hasn't scored a hundred'. But you don't leave him out just because he hasn't scored a hundred. You don't leave him out because of what he is done in the past,” Ajay Jadeja stated.
“Virat Kohli is a choice that you have to make. Do you want to play that solidity at the top and then get runs right at the back? It's that old-style when Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma will bat at the top and you would have players like Dhoni where they get 60 in the last 4 overs,” he pointed out.
“It depends on whom you want to play. I feel you have a choice, it's a tough one to make. If I had to pick a T20 side, Virat probably won't be there,” Ajay Jadeja summed up.
On Saturday, Virat Kohli went on to disappoint his legion of supporters yet again as he lost his wicket just for 1 in the second T20I against England at Edgbaston in Birmingham.
Virat Kohli lost his wicket as he tried to hit the ball over the deep midwicket boundary but failed to get enough power behind his shot. He was eventually caught by David Malan in the backward point region as the ball took the outer edge of his bat and went up in the air.
Earlier, Kapil Dev’s strong remarks against Virat Kohli had led to a storm on social media with supporters of both players clashing on Twitter.
“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.
“You can call it rest and someone else will call it dropped. Every person will have his own view. Obviously, if selectors don’t pick him (Kohli), then it could be because a big player isn’t performing,” Kapil Dev observed.
“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.”
But Virat Kohli's supporters were quick to defend the embattled Indian cricketer with many of them taking to Twitter to dismiss Kapil Dev’s argument.
“Trying hard to not say something about Kapil Dev because well I respect him. Hopefully, he doesn’t go down the Gavaskar and Ganguly line,” a Virat Kohli fan said on Twitter.
“Did not expect that from Kapil Dev. Anyway just cannot compare Apple to Oranges. Virat is a front-line top-order batsman who can bat 20 overs if needed whereas in Ashwin’s case he can bowl a maximum of 4 overs from 20 overs. Prime reason cannot be compared. Fielding another aspect,” another argued.
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