Former Pakistan cricketer Rashid Latif on Saturday (Jan 25) said that Indian senior duo Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are being targeted for their red-ball form and are forced to play domestic cricket ahead of the white-ball tournaments.
Rohit turned up for Mumbai in their ongoing Ranji Trophy match against Jammu & Kashmir. He scored 3 and 28 runs in the match. Meanwhile, Kohli will join Delhi's squad for the match against Railways from January 30.
Other than the star duo, members of the Test squad that faced a 1-3 defeat in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series against Australia are also featuring for their respective state sides for the latest round of Ranji Trophy matches. The other notable players include Yashasvi Jaiswal (Mumbai), Rishabh Pant (Delhi), Ravindra Jadeja (Saurashtra) and Shubman Gill (Punjab).
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Latif said that Rohit and Kohli should focus on their upcoming white-ball tournaments against England and next month’s Champions Trophy in Dubai.
Latif said that due to the busy international calendar, players don’t get much time to play domestic cricket. He went on to say that the star duo played two World Cup finals in the last two years without playing domestic cricket.
White-ball is a totally different game: Rashid
“There is no time for players to play domestic cricket due to the packed international calendar. If needed they should play domestic cricket but due to the targeting of Rohit and Virat, they’re forcing everyone to play domestic cricket. In the past, barring Sachin Tendulkar, others have not played much domestic cricket... Rohit and Virat have won the T20 World Cup and reached the final of the ODI World Cup without playing domestic cricket. They will next play the ODI series against England so they should prepare for it as white-ball is a totally different game,” Latif was quoted saying to IANS news agency.
Rohit and Kohli will feature in the three-match ODI series against England starting on February 6. Both teams are currently playing the five-match T20I series. India started with a thumping win at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata in the first T20I.
(With inputs from agencies)