“More game time is needed for Virat Kohli , taking rest wont help him”- RP Singh on Virat Kohli
Former fast bowler RP Singh pointed fingers at Team India’s selection policy as former skipper Virat Kohli has been rested for the white-ball series against West Indies. The former Indian skipper is having to deal with a poor run of form with the bat as he scored just 12 runs in the T20I series against England. Before that, he failed to score big in the rescheduled fifth Test match.
The 33-year-old scored his last international century way back in 2019. He has failed to convert his half-centuries into triple-digit scores in the last two and a half years. Singh was far from impressed with the selection policy of the Indian team as he feels if a player is not scoring runs, then taking a rest won’t help him.
“When a player is going through a bad patch, he won’t ask for rest. He should play more games as taking rest won’t help him return to form. The graph has gone down and will be up again only when you play regular matches,” Singh told Cricbuzz.
The former pacer further said that during his playing days there was no such policy of taking rest as no one used to ask the players regarding it.
“The luxury of taking rest isn’t available for every player. When Pragyan (Ojha) and I were a part of the Indian team, there was no such thing as rest. No one asked if we wanted to rest… you either got selected or dropped,” he said.
Singh further said that the decision only makes sense if Kohli has a niggle.
“Even senior players didn’t take rest before the 20-20 World Cup 2007 and that was because the format was new. A cricketer’s playing days are limited and he eventually has to retire. Only if Virat has a niggle, then it’s a right decision,” he added.
The BCCI announced the T20I squad for the West Indies tour as Kohli was excluded from the team, alongside Jasprit Bumrah and Yuzvendra Chahal. On the other hand, Ravichandran Ashwin, KL Rahul and Kuldeep Yadav returned to the squad for the five-match series.
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