Former India batter Sunil Gavaskar opened up on Virat Kohli, and Rohit Sharma missing the upcoming Duleep Trophy 2024 reckoned that players in their mid-thirties in any sport will have to play regularly to help him maintain their standards. Both Rohit and Kohli have already announced their retirement from T20Is. They recently featured in the ODI series against Sri Lanka.
BCCI have already announced their squad for the Duleep Trophy where Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah will miss the season.
“The selectors have not picked the skipper Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli for the Duleep Trophy so they will most likely go into the Bangladesh Test series without much match practice,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for the mid-day.
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However, Gavaskar backed the decision not to take Bumrah on the squad because a pacer like him would have to be handled with care.
“While it’s understandable that somebody like Jasprit Bumrah with his delicate back needs to be handled with care, the batters could have done with some batting time out in the middle. Once a player hits the mid-thirties in any sport, then regular competition will help him maintain the high standards he has set.
"When there’s a longish gap then the muscle memory weakens somewhat and to get back to the high standards from earlier is not easy,” Gavaskar added.
Earlier, BCCI secretary Jay Shah said that the cricket board don't want to take any risk of injury of Rohit and Kohli by adding them to domestic cricket. Both Rohit and Kohli will now feature in the upcoming Test series against Bangladesh which is scheduled to start from 19 September.
Team India host Bangladesh for two Test matches followed by three match T20Is and after that India will host New Zealand for three Test match series.
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