Former Indian cricket team coach Ravi Shastri has suggested that senior batters Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli return to domestic cricket.
The duo has been struggling to maintain their form and received a lot of criticism for their poor run in the Border Gavaskar Trophy.
Rohit Sharma managed to score only 31 runs while Virat Kohli aggregated 190 runs in nine innings, despite scoring a century in the second innings of the Perth test. The duo’s failures have been one of the reasons why India could not post more than 200 runs.
Rohit Sharma decided to stand down for the final test, paving the way for Bumrah to lead the side who guided the side to a 295-run victory in the first test.
Meanwhile, Virat Kohli was dismissed eight times in trying to chase wide deliveries. “If there’s a gap for them, I think they should go back and play some domestic cricket and see how it is.”
“Because when you play Test match cricket for that length of time, it’s important to play domestic cricket for two reasons: You’re abreast with the current generation (and) you can contribute to that younger generation with your experience,” Shastri told ICC Review.
“And more importantly, you get to play spin more than you will ever play. So if you see India as recorded, India on turning tracks is not the greatest. If you have quality spinners in the opposition, they can trouble you. And they have troubled India,” he added.
The next round of the Ranji Trophy begins on January 23 and it will be interesting to see whether Rohit and Kohli could be available for Mumbai and Delhi respectively.
Shastri also added that it depends on Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma’s hunger and desire to get back to form. The former India coach also reckons that playing domestic cricket would help the duo face spinners on turning tracks.
After a white-wash defeat in 0-3 against New Zealand and 1-3 defeat against Australia, India have to qualify for the World Test Championship for the very first time.
“They might have been lucky to get over a couple of series, but you saw how New Zealand exposed them before coming to Australia. So I would leave it on that,” Shastri said.
“And plus, it’s the hunger and desire. When you’re in your 30s, one is 36, the other is 38. They would know how hungry they are,” he added.
Shastri also calculated that there is still room for Virat Kohli to contribut to Indian cricket as he can help groom the youngsters.
“So I think the contributing factor to this team is transition and the youngsters coming through the ranks. If you look at Jaiswal, he’s 23. You look at Shubham Gill is 22, 23 [25 years]. Nitish Reddy is 21,” said Shastri.
“There are a lot of players. Rishabh Pant, he is still very young. He is 25 or 26. [27 years]. So there are a lot of guys there who can benefit from the experience of a player of Virat Kohli’s calibre,” he added.
The men in blues next schedule will be a T20I and ODI series in England’s tour of India 2025 with the T20I leg to begin on January 22 at Eden Gardens.
