The Indian squad announced for the Caribbean series has raised many eyebrows due to the number of senior players missing from the side. Majorly the names include regular captain Rohit Sharma and former skipper Virat Kohli and pacer Jasprit Bumrah. The decision to rest the players is being questioned by many experts considering the fact that Rohit had not played the fifth Test against England after testing positive for Covid-19. While Kohli had been rested for the first T20I against England. Both Kohli and Sharma had also been rested for India’s five-match T20I series at home against South Africa in June. Along with this, all three didn’t feature in the two-match T20I series in Ireland before the England Test.Â
Famous Indian commentator and former India opener Aakash Chopra pointed out that all players, in general, had got plenty of rest in the past three years due to Covid-19 disrupting the whole cricket calendar. “What is with all the rest? How much rest do you want? Earlier, when a player used to be out of form, he used to be dropped. And picked again only when he scored runs in domestic cricket. But now whenever someone is out of form, he rests. Are you guys not worried about it?” Chopra said on his Youtube channel.
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The struggling Indian top order
India’s top order is having a hard time at the centre. While Rohit had found it difficult to convert good starts in the IPL and seemed to have the same problem in the first T20I, Kohli’s form across formats has seen an alarming drop this year. In the absence of the big names youngsters like Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Ruturaj Gaikwad etc take up their place and do well. But once the big names are back these guys don’t get to feature in prominent matches despite playing well. For how many days more do these experienced seasoned biggies take up Team India spots for the sake of their names? That’s a question popping up in the minds of everyone now.
“I personally think whenever someone is out of form, he should play as much cricket as possible. When there were strict bio bubbles, there was no cricket for almost six months in 2020 from March to September. Next year again you play one half of IPL and then after a gap of three-four months you play the second half. So it’s already a rest of ten months in 2-3 years. You don’t get any more rest than this in professional sport,”
SAID CHOPRA.
“It’s good that India keeps on giving opportunities to players like Ishan Kishan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Deepak Hooda and Sanju Samson when the big players are rested. But what happens when these fringe players score runs. Do you tell them that they are dropped just because the big players are available now? Won’t they feel what wrong they have done?”
Aakash Chopra concluded.
