Indian captain Rohit Sharma has come out in support of Virat Kohli, his teammate and the former Indian captain. Virat has been out of form for the last couple of years and he has gone on to play 76 innings without scoring an international century. Pressure is constantly mounting on him with the T20 World Cup approaching a new crop of players waiting on the bench.
Former C=cricketers have now also come out against Virat Kohli. India’s first world cup winning captain Kapil Dev passed on a statement a couple of days ago wherein he stated that if R Ashwin can be dropped from Test on the basis of performance, there is no reason why Virat Kohli can not be dropped from the T20Is.
Former Indian pacer Venkatesh Prasad has also lashed out at the team management for resting players who are out of form. He has clearly stated that these players should be sent back to domestic cricket.
Rohit Sharma Responds To Kapil Dev’s Remarks On Virat Kohli
After the third T20I which India lost by 17 runs, skipper Rohit Sharma spoke to reporters during a press conference and he spoke about Kohli’s form as well.
“It is not difficult for us as we do not listen to the outside noise. I don’t know who the experts are. I don’t even understand why they are called experts. They are watching it from the outside, they don’t know what is going on inside. We are building a team, we have a certain thought process. A lot of deliberation goes behind it.”
“There is a lot of thinking behind it. Boys are backed. Boys are given chances. People outside don’t know all these things. It is not important what is going on outside,” said Rohit.
“If you talk of form, it goes up and down for everyone. The quality of a player never goes down and we should remember that. When you make certain comments, you should always remember that the quality of a player does not go down. We back that quality. It has happened with me, it has happened with XYZ, it has happened with everyone, it is nothing new.”
“When some player has done so well consistently for so long, that can’t be written off in one or two series or one or two years. It takes people time to understand it completely, but those who are running the team know the importance of that quality,” he added.
When asked about the aggressive approach being taken by Virat Kohli, Rohit said that it’s a bit of both (when asked if Kohli’s approach is a team instruction or a personal choice). We, as a team, want to play in a certain way, and every player needs to buy into that thought process. Otherwise, you know, it’s not going to happen for you. And all the players, all the batters, who are part of this squad, are willing to take that extra risk and go and see what extra they can do with the bat.
