Former India cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu lashed out at Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma's critics after the duo failed to perform in the Border-Gavakar Trophy. Kohli who holds a great batting record against Australia failed to perform in his last outing during the five Test match series. The 36-year-old smashed an unbeaten century in the first Test match but he failed to carry the momentum for the next matches. He just scored 190 runs in five Test matches against Australia.
On the other hand, Rohit missed the first Test match citing personal reasons and joined the squad from the second Test match. He also failed to perform against Australia as he just scored 31 runs in three Tests of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25. Both veteran batters faced a lot of criticism as Australia defeated India 3-1 to seal their spot in the World Test Championship (WTC) final scheduled to take place in England later this year.
In the exclusive conversation with Sports Tak, Sidhu reckoned that the people and cricketing experts to have faith in both cricketers as they guided India to a T20 World Cup win in 2024.
"You know, someone's bad form has come, for two months. You can't delete it. The services he's been performing for so long, I know that you cannot rest on your laurels. You have to refresh them with new ones. But you have to give allowance. Mark Taylor kept failing for one and a half years. Persistent. Azharuddin kept failing. Ganguly failed 8 innings. And he said, I can fail in 8 innings, but it takes just one innings for me to come back" said Sidhu.
The cricketer-turned-commentator also shed light on other Indian batters apart from Rohit and Virat in the five-Test match series against Australia.
"Six months ago, you both won the World Cup. Right? And now, all the cricket is one-day cricket. Rohit Sharma won the World Cup. Virat Kohli won the World Cup. You will only have faith in both of them. And the rest... Tell me. The other five were the top players who played Kokuburra Red Ball. Right? Who showed consistency? It's a team game. Blaming is the easiest thing. It's easy to hit stones. But some people make their homes from the stones that the world hits" added Sidhu
Sidhu is confident that Both Rohit and Virat will make a comeback and urged fans and cricket experts to respect the stars.
"These are such people. This is not the first time that Virat Kohli has been in crisis. This is not the first time that his wife is dragged in between. Right? This is wrong. We must learn to respect our heroes. Have some patience. And, I mean, you will understand. Look, the darker the night, the brighter the star. So I think that these were three eras. And in these eras too, everyone had a bad time" Sidhu also said.
After losing the five-Test match series against Australia, Rohit and Virat will now be seen in the action for the three match ODI series against England and that will be India's last white ball assignment before the Champions Trophy 2025 which is scheduled to start from February 19.
The Indian duo were the stand-out performers during their last ODI tournament outing in 2023 World Cup and both Rohit and Virat will look to repeat the same in the upcoming Champions Trophy.