Batting legend Sunil Gavaskar on Sunday (May 8) said Virat Kohli should refrain from skipping India matches even if he needs one to work towards regaining his form, suggesting that the former RCB skipper should have sat out during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022.
Gavaskar’s comment came amid the calls for Virat Kohli to take a break from the game to refresh himself.
Kohli is going through a torrid phase in the ongoing IPL season. In the IPL 2022 so far, he has played 12 innings and managed to amass just 216 runs at an average of 19.64 with only one half-century.
On Sunday (May 8), Virat was dismissed for his third golden duck of the season as he got out in the very first delivery of the match against SRH at the Wankhede Stadium. He chipped a delivery from left-arm spinner Jagadeesa Suchith straight into the hands of the short mid-wicket fielder.
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"As long as the break doesn’t mean he is missing India matches. India matches should be No. 1 priority. It’s as simple as that," Gavaskar said while being on-air for Star Sports.
"I think the thing is that if you don’t play, how do you get your form back?
"Sitting in the change room, it’s not going to get your form back. The more you play, the more chances you getting your form back."
Earlier, former India head coach Ravi Shastri had said that Kohli is mentally “overcooked” and needs to take a break from cricket in order to serve the country for at least another six-seven years.
However, Gavaskar is not on the same page with Shastri as he said: "You ask all over India, you want everybody in India who follows the game will say ‘we want the form for India’. Right? So you can’t take a break for an India game. You want Kohli to start scoring runs for India. All of us want that."
Sunil Gavaskar further pointed out that Virat Kohli should have continued playing after he got a fifty against the West Indies in the T20I series in February.
Notably, Kohli rested for the final T20I against the West Indies and opted out of the subsequent three-T20I series against Sri Lanka.
"He hit a half-century against Sri Lanka and then he left out for the T20 matches, I believe. There he got runs and looking good and there was all the more reason that he should have continued playing. But he was not selected or left out, whatever," Gavaskar remarked.
"All of us want to see him get back to scoring big runs again."
(With India Today inputs)
