Shastri advocates domestic cricket for struggling duo of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in the time off before Champions Tophy.
Shastri advocates some time in domestic cricket for Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli to find their mojos back.
Following India’s 3-1 series defeat in Australia, Shastri made the idea. After scoring 31 runs in five innings, Rohit decided to skip the final Test in Sydney due to his poor form, while Kohli slowed down after opening the series with a century in India’s 295-run victory in Perth. His dismissals were all caught in the cordon or behind it.
Players should make themselves available to play domestic cricket “if they have the commitment to play red-ball cricket,” according to head coach Gautam Gambhir, who supports Shastri’s approach.
“I think fitness is very important,” Shastri told the ICC Review. “That’s more important than anything else. There’s no substitute for experience. But for me, current form and fitness are very important as well. So the next six months, I know there’s a lot of one-day cricket, but when there’s an experienced player playing, just seeing the way he’s batting, you get a fair idea if we can jump on to that Test cricket bandwagon straightaway.
“So, I will be watching very closely all the one-day games that are played. The Champions Trophy with little bit of the IPL as well. And if possible, 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 cricket for that length of time, it’s important to play domestic cricket.”
On the surface, Shastri’s approach might make sense, yet both players have very little time to play any first-class cricket due to the busy cricket schedule. Before attention turns to the latter stages of the Ranji Trophy, the white-ball portion of India’s domestic season continues until the third week of January. However, Kohli and Rohit may only play in one Ranji match starting on January 23 because they are expected to play in India’s home ODI matches against England in the lead-up to the Champions Trophy.
The alternative, however impractical, is for them to attempt to compete in the county championships in the early summer months in England. Given that both players are huge draws for their respective IPL teams, this seems nearly impossible. In his case, Kohli is also vying to lead Royal Challengers Bengaluru once more, a position he relinquished in 2020.