New Delhi: Indian skipper Rohit Sharma and senior batter Virat Kohli might be forced to return to domestic cricket after their horror show with the bat in the recently concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 against Australia. Both Kohli and Rohit failed to fire as India suffered a 3-1 defeat in the Test series and got knocked out of the race for the World Test Championship (WTC) 2023-25 final.
Rohit ended the series with just 31 runs from three matches while Kohli scored 190 runs in five Tests, including a solitary century. During BCCI’s review meeting in Mumbai on Saturday, a decision was taken on the Indian players’ participation in domestic cricket. It was emphasised that those not on national duty must play domestic cricket if they want to play Test cricket for India.
As per a report in the news agency PTI, BCCI has directed all centrally contracted players to play domestic cricket when not on international duty and India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir made it clear that those committed to red-ball cricket must play Ranji Trophy matches.
It remains to be seen if the decision will finally force Rohit and Kohli to play domestic cricket again and find their forms to keep their place in the Test squad. Kohli last played for Delhi in the domestic circuit in 2012 while Rohit’s last domestic match for Mumbai was in 2015. Both senior players have skipped domestic cricket citing workload reasons when not playing for India.
No cherry picking assignments
As per the report in PTI, BCCI has also made it clear that the senior players will not be allowed to pick and choose assignments going forward. On several instances in the past, senior players have opted to skip bilateral series to take a break without citing any proper reasons. However, now the players won’t be allowed to skip series on their wishes and will have to provide a valid medical reason for a break.
The players will reportedly also require the permission of head coach Gambhir and the selection committee in order to skip a particular series.
Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma might be forced to return to Ranji Trophy again after a decision regarding the Indian players’ participation in domestic cricket was taken during BCCI’s review meeting on Saturday. Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
