Former India great Sunil Gavaskar is left bewildered with Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli not playing in Duleep Trophy. Earlier, the BCCI clarified that the Indian stars will be taking part in the domestic league to prepare for the IND vs BAN Test series. While most of the stars will be taking part, Rohit and Virat are the big names that will remain as absentees. And this has baffled Gavaskar who claims that the ace batters will head into the Test series without practice.
Apart from Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Hardik Pandya will also be absent in the Duleep Trophy. Bumrah gets an extended break while Shami recovers from his ankle injury. As Pandya, things are different, as the all-rounder prepares only for white ball cricket.
“The selectors have not picked the skipper Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli for the Duleep Trophy so they will most likely go into the Bangladesh Test series without much match practice,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for the mid-day.
No practice for Virat-Rohit?
Previously, BCCI Secretary Jay Shah claimed that there is risk of the duo getting injured and the board doesn’t want their star batters to get overworked. “It doesn’t make sense to add to Virat and Rohit’s load by asking them to play domestic cricket. They run the risk of getting injured,” Jay Shah told The Times of India.
But Sunil Gavaskar is of a different opinion. He claimed that it is necessary for both the batters to play domestic cricket. The reason? Without Duleep Trophy, both the batters would head into the tournament without any practice.
“While it’s understandable that somebody like Jasprit Bumrah with his delicate back needs to be handled with care, the batters could have done with some batting time out in the middle. Once a player hits the mid-thirties in any sport, then regular competition will help him maintain the high standards he has set. When there’s a longish gap then the muscle memory weakens somewhat and to get back to the high standards from earlier is not easy,” Gavaskar added.
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