Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, the two stalwarts of Indian cricket, had ordinary outings in the Chennai Test against Bangladesh leading to questions over them skipping the recent Duleep Trophy that would have allowed them to shake off the red-ball rust. While Rohit managed 11 runs in the contest, Kohli fared a tad better with 23 runs as India went on to win by 280 runs. A host of top India cricketers including KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill among others featured in Duleep Trophy – a four-day red-ball contest – to get some game time ahead of the bumper Test season.
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The likes of Rohit, Kohli, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja (withdrawn), Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj gave the competition a skip. India are slated to host New Zealand for three Tests before flying to Australia for five Tests with these contests crucial in deciding whether they will qualify for the final of the World Test Championship.
In Test cricket this year, Rohit has scored 466 runs from 13 innings at an average of 38.83 while Kohli has mustered 81 runs from four innings. Former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar hinted that the two senior players are being “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 the option of picking them in the Duleep Trophy. So one has to be careful about treating certain players differently and do what’s best for Indian cricket and for the player,” Manjrekar said on ESPNCricinfo.
He further added that had Rohit and Kohli played in the Duleep Trophy, it would he benefitted them as far as their form in Test cricket is concerned. He though thinks that it’s not beyond the two quality batters to bounce back in the second Test that starts from Friday in Kanpur.
“Virat and Rohit not playing (Duleep Trophy) was not good for Indian cricket, nor was it good for the two players. Had they played the Duleep Trophy and had some time in the red-ball cricket, things would have been different. But they have the class and experience to make a comeback later in the series, and I don’t see them, for that reason, not being in form,” Manjrekar said.
“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.
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