On December 27, BCCI revealed the 15-man ODI as well as the T20I squad for the home series against Sri Lanka. The side didn’t have the names of the bigwigs like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and KL Rahul. This wasn’t a surprise as the axing was surely on the cards. A few days ago, a media report quoted a BCCI source who had said that Rohit and Virat may be rested with KL Rahul getting dropped. “His days are numbered,” he had said, pointing at Rahul who had string of poor scores.
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However, the trio is back for the 50-over cricket. Earlier Sanjay Manjrekar had opined that Kohli was not dropped from T20 side forever as the selectors wanted him to play more ODI cricket.
Now, his childhood coach has said that media or fans must not say Kohli has been ‘dropped’ since there is no clarity from the selectors. Kohli last played a T20I match against England in the T20 World Cup semi-finals where India were knocked out from the tournament with a ten-wicket win.
“There is still no clarity regarding his exclusion from the T20 squad. Since there is no official e-mail or any confirmation over the same, we don’t know if he has been dropped, or if he himself asked for rest. I don’t think it’s right to say that he has been dropped,” said Rajkumar Sharma.
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He further said the team management must have done it with an eye towards the future generation. With no ‘major T20 tournament’ in sight, the selectors were trying to experiment with exciting new batters like Deepak Hooda and Rahul Tripathi, he said.
“There is no major T20 competition coming up, and there is still a lot of time left for the next World Cup. These guys were there for the Test matches in Bangladesh, and most of them are also available for the ODI series against Sri Lanka,” he added.
“Virat Kohli might have been given rest as a lot of other senior players aren’t in the T20 team either. The team management has rested these guys and given the youngsters an opportunity. I don’t think they would replace players like them without having any conversations with them,” explained Rajkumar.
The first T20I between India and Sri Lanka will be played on Tuesday, January 03 at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.
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