Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma‘s poor run in India’s home Test series against Bangladesh and New Zealand has led to a debate on whether it’s the end of the road for the two batting icons. But former Pakistan batsman Basit Ali has advised the fans to not be so impatient and lose trust in players who have been the heroes of Indian cricket.
Kohli scored 99 runs in the two Tests against Bangladesh, and aggregated only 93 in the three Tests against New Zealand. Meanwhile, captain Rohit totalled 42 against Bangladesh and 91 against the Kiwis.
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It led to fans on social media and some of the experts asking if it’s the end of an era and whether the tour of Australia will be the last for stalwarts like Kohli, Rohit, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.
“What they are talking about now is remove Virat, remove Rohit, remove Ashwin. Do you have any players of their quality? Will you bring Abhishek Sharma, a T20 player? Tell me,” asked Basit in a video on his YouTube channel.
Basit, however, admitted that there is lack of match practice in the case of Rohit and Virat, both of got themselves exempted from the Duleep Trophy before the Bangladesh series while most of the other Indian Test players featured in the domestic red-ball tournament.
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“There’s a lack of match practice, for both Virat and Rohit. They need matches. Let them play on flat tracks, so that they stay on the wicket for at least two sessions,” said the 53-year-old Basit.
Notbaly, India have scrapped their only practice match in Australia against India ‘A’ in order to spend more time in the nets.
India’s five Test tour of Australia for the Border Gavaskar Trophy begins on November 22 in Perth. The tour will also decide India’s fate in the race to qualify for the World Test Championship (WTC). India are currently number two in the WTC table, and the top two teams at the end of the 2023-25 cycle will play the final at Lord’s in June next year.
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“Apne heroes ko zeroes mat banao?” Basit advised the fans. “We (in Pakistan) talk against Babar Azam, Shan Masood, Mohammad Rizwan; but we don’t say that they should be out of the team. They will come back to form.
“But saying things like ‘end of an era’, that’s going a bit too far. Will cricket end if you don’t qualify for the World Test Championship final?” he asked.