New Delhi: It has taken six losses in the last eight Tests for the Indian cricket stars to wake up from their long slumber. After suffering humiliating defeats – at home for the first time in 12 years after being swept 0-3 against New Zealand and away in Australia, losing the Border-Gavaskar Trophy after 10 years by a 1-3 margin – several cricket stars who are regular members of the Test squad are ready to test their mettle in Ranji Trophy in a desperate bid to regain their form.
Leading from the front is India skipper Rohit Sharma, who was the first player to join his Mumbai teammates for a practice session at the Wankhede Stadium on Tuesday. After enduring a horror outing with the bat Down Under, Rohit came under heavy criticism as calls for retirement dominated the headlines. The right-handed opener even dropped himself from the playing X1 of the final Test in Sydney but his sacrifice went in vain as India lost the final by 184 runs.
Following the Australian disaster, India’s head coach urged the non-performers to play domestic red-ball cricket to prove their credentials in the long format. BCCI also gave a stern message to the players and conveyed that their decision to play or not play in domestic red-ball cricket might have a bearing on their Test futures.
Aiming to avoid a fate similar to Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan, who lost their central contracts last year, the likes of Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal have decided to join respective teams for the upcoming round 2 matches of the Ranji Trophy 2024-25 season starting January 23.
While a decision on Rohit’s availability is yet to be made, his presence in the training session with Mumbai teammates is a big indication that he will turn up for the match against Jammu and Kashmir.
Meanwhile, there is no update on the availability of Virat Kohli, who is in the Delhi squad for the Ranji season.
Too little too late to redeem themselves?
While it’s good on the part of the star cricketers to finally give respect to domestic cricket, it looks more like a desperate move. Ideally, the star cricketers should have come to their senses after the home humiliation against New Zealand and played domestic red-ball cricket to gain some much-needed form for the Australia tour.
Both Kohli and Rohit could have, in fact, should have featured in the Duleep Trophy to get some red-ball practice ahead of the crucial Border-Gavaskar Trophy. But neither their poor form nor the importance of the series (World Test Championship final at stake) was enough for the duo to turn up for the Duleep Trophy.
The absence of the veterans reportedly prompted Ravindra Jadeja to pull out of the Duleep trophy which featured the likes of Yashavi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant, Akash Deep, Nitish Reddy and KL Rahul.
With no runs or rhythm under their belt, Kohli and Rohit struggled to get going in the five-match series as did the other Indian batters.
India’s next red-ball assignment is away in England after the conclusion of the Indian Premier League (2025) and it will be interesting to see who makes the cut in India’s first series in the next World Test Championship cycle. While it’s good news for Indian cricket to see the star players going back to their roots to regain their form, is it too little too late?
While it’s good on the part of the star cricketers to finally give respect to domestic cricket, it looks more like a desperate move. Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
