Team India suffered a humbling and disastrous defeat in the home Test series against New Zealand. They were whitewashed by a margin of 3-0 and the veteran players with the likes of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli failed with the bat. Former Indian cricketer, Mohammed Kaif, recently said that both Sharma and Kohli should drop the VIP culture and go play domestic cricket.
He feels that both these players need the form and hence they need to grind to bat for long hours in domestic cricket. If they go on to make big daddy hundreds in domestic cricket by batting for long hours, then they will get the confidence for international cricket.
“Absolutely. They need the form, and they need to bat hours there. If they end up scoring a hundred, then it will benefit them immensely and serve as a morale booster. So whoever thinks that they are struggling to score runs and did not get enough game time, they should 100 percent play in domestic cricket. Forget that you travel in big cars and flights and that you may not get VIP treatment there. If you want to find form, you need to put in that effort,” Mohammed Kaif said in a recent video.
Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have been poor with the bat in Test cricket
The Indian captain scored 91 runs in three Tests at an average of 15.16 while the former Indian captain scored 93 runs at an average of 15.50. Lot of players who were part of the home Test series against New Zealand did play in the Duleep Trophy before arriving for the home series against Bangladesh.
However, Sharma and Kohli refrained from participating in the Duleep Trophy despite reports of them playing in the tournament surfaced.
As per reports, both these players have been given the ultimatum regarding their spot in the Test team. They will need to perform in the upcoming five match Test series in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024/25 or else they will lose their position and their career in the longest format of the game could be over.
Rohit Sharma has played 111 innings in 64 Test matches so far and has scored 4271 runs at 42.29 average with 12 centuries and 18 half-centuries. On the other hand, Virat Kohli has played 201 innings in 118 Test matches and has scored 9040 runs at an average of 47.83 with 29 hundreds and 31 half centuries.
