“Virat and Rohit are not… “Former Indian cricketer makes a bold remark on Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma after their flop show against Bangladesh

Both Indian cricket icons Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were uninspiring in the Chennai Test versus Bangladesh raising eyebrows as to why they opted not to play the recent Duleep Trophy, a tournament that would have helped them get acquainted with the red ball. In the fourth innings of the match, Rohit managed to get only 11 runs while Kohli had a slightly better score of 23 runs, with India emerging victorious by a clear margin of 280 runs. The Duleep Trophy, a four-day red-ball tournament which featured some top Indian cricketers including KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill etc., was included in the calendar so that players could have some feel of the red-ball ahead of the busy Test season.

The same cannot be said of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja (withdrew), Jasprit Bumrah, and Mohammed Siraj. Following that, India are said to host New Zealand for three Tests and then go to Australia for five Tests, and these matches are important because their outcome will determine if they get to participate in the final of the World Test Championships.

Rohit has managed to put on 466 runs from 13 innings in the Test matches played this year while his average stands at 38.83 whereas Kohli in four innings has only managed to score 81 runs. According to

Former India player Sanjay Manjrekar, such discrimination has resulted in the two senior players getting “treated differently”.

“I’m not worried, but I’m sure somebody made a note of the fact that they would have been better off had they played some red-ball cricket. There was an option of including them in the Duleep Trophy. So one must be careful about how some players are looked after and what is the best for Indian cricket as well as the player,” Manjrekar said while speaking on ESPNCricinfo.

He did go on to say that if Rohit and Kohli had participated in the Duleep Trophy, it would have been better for their confidence for Test cricket. He however feels that it is not too much to expect from two quality batters to stage a recovery in the second Test that begins on Friday in Kanpur.

“Virat and Rohit not playing (Duleep Trophy) was not the good thing for Indian cricket, and it was not good for those two players as well. In a way, they were deprived of playing the Duleep Trophy and followed by some time in the Test matches which would have altered the scenario completely. But they have the kind of class that should be enough to make a comeback later in the series but I do not see them for that reason being out of touch,” said Manjrekar.

“But something that one must make a quiet note of, and that has been a problem with Indian cricket for a long time now, is that certain players get picked out for special treatment because of their status, which eventually hurts that player more than anyone else,” he added.