KL Rahul and Virat Kohli missed their team's first Ranji matches due to respective injuries.
India skipper Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant, and Shreyas Iyer will miss the sixth round of the Ranji Trophy group stage, but the return of Virat Kohli and KL Rahul has been the highlight of the final round of India's best domestic red ball tournament.
However, before their separate returns on Wednesday, former India captain Sunil Gavaskar issued a warning to the BCCI on their new diktat on domestic cricket participation.
The edict was part of the BCCI's 10-point diktat, which was implemented in the aftermath of India's disastrous performance on the Australian tour, with even head coach Gautam Gambhir pushing India regulars to prioritize domestic cricket when away from national duty.
Following the announcement, many Indian stars made themselves available for the fifth round of the Ranji Trophy after the tournament resumed following the white-ball season on January 23. KL Rahul and Virat Kohli missed their team’s first match owing to their respective injuries.
With this in mind, Sunil Gavaskar confessed that he is waiting to see what punishment players face if they miss a domestic game and warned the BCCI that obtaining a medical certificate has gotten easier.
He stated that if an injury is the reason for missing a game, they should report to the National Cricket Academy and the BCCI's medical team to determine the severity of the blow.
"More interesting would be what action the BCCI takes if they don’t play. Were they injured? Getting a medical certificate for an ‘injury’ is child’s play, and if they are injured, did they go to the NCA for treatment and recovery, as Nitish Reddy was sent the moment he had that side strain?
Isn’t that the practice for the BCCI-contracted players, that as soon as there’s an injury, they have to report to the NCA, and only after the BCCI experts there certify them as fit can they resume playing for India? For all we know, these players might have opted out of the earlier games for non-injury reasons. We shall soon find out,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Sportstar.
Kohli will play for Delhi in the match against Railways at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, while Rahul will be part of Karnataka's match against Haryana in Bengaluru.