New Delhi: Former India head coach Ravi Shastri wants Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli to return to domestic cricket after their recent failures in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 against Australia. Both senior India batters failed to deliver as the visitors suffered a crushing 3-1 defeat in the five-match Test series to lose the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and miss out on qualifying for the World Test Championship (WTC) 2023-25 final.
Kohli emphatically started the series with an unbeaten century in the 1st Test against Australia in Perth. However, his form fizzled out as the series progressed. The star batter eventually finished with only 190 runs in 5 Tests and was consistently troubled by the outside-off deliveries against the Australian pacers.
Rohit too endured a horror outing with the bat in the five-match series. The Indian skipper joined the team from the 2nd Test in Adelaide and had to be left out of the playing XI for the 5th Test in Sydney after scoring only 31 runs in 3 matches. Rohit struggled in the middle order before shifting to his original spot as an opener. However, he failed to fire on the top as well.
Amid questions over the duo’s future in Test cricket for India, former head coach Shastri has urged them to play domestic cricket to find their form. Shastri also highlighted how the two senior India batters have struggled against spinners in home conditions of later and playing domestic cricket can help them tackle the issue.
“If there’s a gap for them, I think they should go back and play some domestic cricket and see how it is. Because when you play Test match cricket for that length of time, it’s important to play domestic cricket for two reasons: You’re abreast with the current generation (and) you can contribute to that younger generation with your experience,” Shastri told the ICC Review.
“And more importantly you get to play spin more than you will ever play. So if you see India as recorded, India on turning tracks is not the greatest. If you have quality spinners in the opposition, they can trouble you. And they have troubled India,” he added.
When did Kohli and Rohit last turned up in domestic cricket?
Rohit and Kohli have not played domestic cricket for a long time now. Kohli last turned up for Delhi in the Ranji Trophy in 2012 while Rohit last played a red-ball game for Mumbai in 2015. Both batters have continued to avoid taking part in domestic cricket owing to international assignments or citing workload management and it remains to be seen if they will return for their state teams this season.
Former India head coach Ravi Shastri has adviced both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli to return to domestic cricket to find their form if they want to keep their places in India’s Test squad. Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
