India captain Rohit Sharma The “experts” have hit back who are questioning Virat KohliHis place in the T20 squad, saying the “quality” of the star batsman is beyond doubt and the team management will continue to support him.
Kohli, who hasn’t scored a century in all formats since November 2019, failed to make an impact in a few T20Is against England.
While his form in all formats of the game is being questioned, Kohli is making a comeback in T20 Internationals after five months.
People like Deepak Hooda found opportunities in Kohli’s absence and made the most of it. However, Hooda did not find a place in the playing XI after showing excellent form against Ireland and in the first match of the series against England.
Experts including World Cup winning captain Kapil Dev and former England captain Michael Vaughan have spoken about Kohli’s long lean patches.
Talking to reporters on Sunday after the third T20 International, Rohit said that experts do not know what is happening inside the team.
When Rohit was asked about this he said, “It is not difficult for us at all as we don’t hear outside noise. Also, I don’t know who are these experts and why they are called experts. Team His thoughts on how Kohli is seeing his form.
While Kapil said that players cannot be picked on the basis of reputation and one has to go by the current form, Vaughan feels that Kohli needs a three-month sabbatical from the game.
“They’re watching from the outside, they don’t know what’s going on inside the team. We have a thought process, we form the team, we debate and discuss it and think about it a lot.
Responding to the growing criticism, Rohit said, “The players we pick, they get support, they are given opportunities. Outsiders don’t know about it. So it’s more important what happens within our team.” Well, that’s important to me.” Bad innings from Kohli.
Kohli has 70 international hundreds to his name, only behind Ricky Ponting (71) and Sachin Tendulkar (100) in the game and Rohit feels that the quality of a star batsman cannot be questioned.
“Also, if you are talking about form, it goes up and down for everyone. The quality of the player is not bad. We should always keep that in mind when comments like this are passed on. We are endorsing that quality.
“It’s happened to me, it’s happened to XYZ. Nothing new in that. When a player has consistently done well, 1-2 bad series, his contribution should not be forgotten.
“It may take time to understand some. But for us, inside the team and running, we know the importance. I would request people from outside, yes you have every right to talk about it, but for us It doesn’t matter much,” said Rohit.
(Inputs PTI)