By- Mohit Singhli
The Indian Cricket Board, BCCI has announced the squad for the 5-match T20I tour of West Indies, with skipper Rohit Sharma back in the squad after being ruled out of the ODI series. The squad for the ODI series has already been announced and the experienced unit has been rested. Shikhar Dhawan will lead the team in the 50-over format.
However, a shocking decision has been taken by the BCCI in the T20 team. Virat Kohli Rest have been given while Jasprit Bumrah and Yuzvendra Chahal have also been rested. But the point to be seen here is whether Virat Kohli was rested or dropped because of his persistent bad patch.
Recently, several former cricketers and experts also criticized Kohli and the BCCI’s form as to why they are considering Virat when he is completely out of runs. Kapil Dev even said that he should definitely be dropped from the shortest format. Wasim Jaffer also said that Virat is no longer in the team for the T20 World Cup.
Will Kohli be considered for T20 Internationals again?
was not Kohli has been rested from the team The tour of West Indies raises a question whether the veteran batsman will be considered for the 20-over format again. On the edge of the T20 World Cup, it is out of the equation that the star batsman is rested in crucial series.
Maybe, the selectors are concerned about India’s hectic schedule ahead of the T20 World Cup with one-day and T20I series against Australia playing the Asia Cup. But it still casts doubt on BCCI’s trust in Virat for this mega tournament.
There are already players like Deepak Hooda, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer and Hardik Pandya who are doing well at No. 3 recently. In such a situation, if any of these performs well in the absence of Kohli, then it will be difficult to bring back Virat Kohli at number 11 and it will not be right either.
So, is this the end of Virat Kohli’s path in the shortest format of the game and from the World Cup squad where he has dominated the T20 World Cup with 2 Player of the Tournament wins?