India head coach Rahul Dravid on Monday (January 23) answered whether the team has moved on from star batter Virat Kohli in the shortest format of the game.
Notably, Kohli was not included in India’s squad for the last T20I series against Sri Lanka, along with Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul. The trio is not part of the side for the upcoming T20I series against New Zealand as well.
Addressing the press conference on the eve of the third ODI against New Zealand, Dravid was asked about Kohli's future with Team India in T20Is.
“Till last year, Virat's position in the T20 team was questioned,” said the reporter, who was midway in his query when Dravid intervened and countered it with an epic reply, “Not by us. Not at all, never by us.”
Rahul Dravid then explained the reason behind the non-selection of Kohli and Rohit in T20Is.
“There’s a certain priority we need to give to certain white-ball tournaments at particular stages of time. With the amount of cricket we are playing - the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and the World Test Championship - there are certain white-ball tournaments that we have to prioritise, the priority after the T20 World Cup has been these six (ODI) games,” he stated.
Virat Kohli kicked off the year 2023 brilliantly as he slammed two centuries in three games to win the Player of the Series award in the home ODI series against Sri Lanka. However, Kohli has failed to make a mark versus New Zealand, registering scores of 8 and 11 in the first two ODIs of the ongoing three-match series.
Kohli-starrer Indian team will now face the Kiwis in the third ODI at Holkar Cricket Stadium, Indore on Tuesday (January 24).
“As you've seen, Virat has played all these six games. He'll get a bit of a break along with Rohit and 1 or 2 other guys in the next week while we play some T20I cricket. And they come refreshed on the 2nd and we have a good week's camp before we play Australia. So yeah it's just priorities. We have to prioritise certain formats,” Dravid remarked.
Before the Asia Cup 2022, questions were raised over Virat Kohli’s place in the Indian team as he was enduring an extended lean patch. However, the veteran batter silenced his critics by finishing the six-team competition as the second highest run-getter with 276 runs to his name from five innings.
During the tournament, Virat also ended his much-talked-about century drought as he slammed 122* off 61 balls in India’s last Super-4 clash against Afghanistan.
After regaining his form, Kohli started dominating bowling attacks once again. He had a great time in the 2022 T20 World Cup Down Under, amassing 296 runs at a staggering average of 98.66 and at a decent strike rate of 136.40 with four half-centuries, including a memorable 53-ball 82* against Pakistan in India's opening fixture.
During the Bangladesh tour last month, Kohli smashed a century in the third ODI as well.
(Hindustan Times Inputs)
