Duleep Trophy 2024–2025: Questions for Sunil Gavaskar The exclusion of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma

In his Mid-day column, Sunil Gavaskar stated, “The selectors have not picked the skipper Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli for the Duleep Trophy so they will most likely go into the Bangladesh Test series without much match practice.”

Star Indian players Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravichandran Ashwin, Hardik Pandya, and Virat Kohli have not been selected for the forthcoming Duleep Trophy, which is scheduled to start on September 5. It is known that the BCCI is resting Kohli, Rohit, Bumrah, and Ashwin in preparation for the impending 10-match Test marathon while not considering Pandya for red-ball cricket.

But Sunil Gavaskar, a former cricket player, isn’t a fan.

He pointed out that while it makes sense to give Bumrah a vacation since it’s critical to control his workload, Rohit and Kohli cannot afford to have the same luxury. He clarified that batters become weaker as they age because they begin to lose muscle memory. The 75-year-old continued by saying that the pair ought to have participated in the Duleep Trophy since it would have provided them with some game experience.

“It’s reasonable that someone like Jasprit Bumrah’s sensitive back needs to be handled carefully, but the middle infield hitters could have used a little extra batting time. In any sport, a player who reaches his mid-thirties will find that continuous competition helps him to keep up the high standards he has set. It is difficult to return to the high standards from former times when there has been a prolonged absence, he continued.

For those who don’t know, Jay Shah, the secretary of the BCCI, earlier said that the board didn’t want the two to play because of the possibility of injury. India will play three Test series: three against New Zealand, three against Australia, and two against Bangladesh. Notably, both Rohit and Virat will be key players in all three series. In light of it, BCCI chose not to jeopardise them.