Sports Desk : Former India batsman Sanjay Manjrekar believes the decision of not selecting Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma for the Duleep Trophy was not a good one at best. Manjrekar believes if the star pair had played some red-ball cricket in the first Test against Bangladesh, things could have been different for them. India defeated Bangladesh by 280 runs at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. Rohit and Kohli failed to score big in the match. Rohit scored 6 and five while Kohli scored 6 and 17.
Nonetheless, Manjrekar said that the decision to not pick Rohit and Kohli for the Duleep Trophy missed a trick. “I am not concerned but I am sure someone would have looked at the fact that they would have been better if they had played some red-ball cricket. There was an option to pick them in the Duleep Trophy. So one has to be careful about treating some players differently and do what is best for Indian cricket and the player. Virat and Rohit not playing (the Duleep Trophy) was not good for Indian cricket, nor was it good for the two players. If they had played the Duleep Trophy and spent some time in red-ball cricket, things would have been different,” he said.
While Manjrekar questioned the preference given to some players in Indian cricket on the basis of their stature, the 59-year-old Manjrekar backed both Kohli and Rohit to score runs. He said that they have the class and experience to come back later in the series and I don't think they are in form for this reason. Both these stars will now be seen in action in the second Test starting from September 27 at Green Park in Kanpur.
In the current World Test Championship (WTC) cycle, Rohit has scored 711 runs in 18 innings at an average of 41.82 with 3 centuries and as many half-centuries. As for Kohli, he has 392 runs in 8 innings at an average of 49, including a hundred and two half-centuries.
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