Aakash Chopra, former Indian batter and commentator, has questioned the resting of Virat Kohli for the upcoming limited-overs series against the West Indies, expressing surprise at the number of matches the right-hander has played since the T20 World Cup in 2021.
The right-hander was first rested for the three-match ODI series and then the five-match T20I series on the Caribbean tour, which triggered debate among the cricket fraternity, and now Chopra said that he is unsure if Kohli had requested to be rested or if the selectors asked him to take a rest.
Kohli has been going through the worst phase of his career, and many believe that he should play as many matches as possible to get back into form, keeping in mind the T20 World Cup 2022.
Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube channel: “When you picked the ODI team, you didn’t pick the T20I team. At that time, the biggest discussion point was that there is probably some concern regarding Virat’s injury. But when you didn’t have to put Virat Kohli’s name at all, even though he played the second ODI, either he has asked for rest, that’s another thing, you don’t know if he has asked for rest or has been asked to rest because of his injury or workload management.”
He continued, “How much cricket has Virat played or missed after the T20 World Cup 2021, he hasn’t played a lot of cricket honestly. He was rested for the three-match T20I series versus New Zealand and the first Test against New Zealand, and then he was injured for the second Test against South Africa.
He was rested for the 3rd T20I versus West Indies, rested for the three-match series versus Sri Lanka before the IPL, he was not part of the South Africa T20Is as he had gone for the Test match, was injured for the first ODI against England and now he is missing the three-match ODI series and the five-match T20I series against West Indies.”
However, Chopra was hopeful that this break is going to be the last one for Kohli as the former skipper needs to play more matches to get back his form. He signed off by saying, “It seems that he is missing a lot of cricket. It is not that he is in amazing form. This is an extended break, I hope this is the last one because you will get chances to score runs if you keep on playing. If you stop, the story gets stuck, there are difficulties for the wagon to again gather pace after that.”
