Former Indian cricketer-turned-politician Kirti Azad on Tuesday (December 14) said that the Indian cricket team will suffer if two talismanic cricketers, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, are not playing together and also in each other's captaincy for the national side.
Kohli was recently stripped of Team India's ODI captaincy, as Rohit was given the reins of both the ODI and T20I formats, and it was later reported that the Test skipper will miss the upcoming three-match ODI series against South Africa in January 2022.
Ahead of the South Africa tour, India were already hit by several injuries to key players, and on Monday, they suffered a major setback as Rohit was ruled out of the three-match Test series in South Africa due to a hamstring injury earlier this week.
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Well, Kohli's participation in the upcoming ODI series in South Africa remains unclear, with some reports suggesting the dashing right-hander has agreed to play in the series.
Azad told ANI on Tuesday: “If Rohit and Virat are not playing together then the team will suffer later they will suffer themselves first. One player will replace another. No one is indispensable. Many greats have come and gone Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly. So, they will suffer first if they do not play in each others' captaincy.”
He further explained, “Rohit being unwell and Kohli not available for the ODIs. Two of your best players are not available for either of your series is really serious for India. They have been the mainstay of your Indian batting and the board must find out where is the problem if at all there is any rather than its member tweeting that there might be a rift in the side. It is not good for the morals of the side and South Africa is a good team especially when you are playing on good hard tracks. It's altogether different from playing in any part of the world. The wickets are different.”
Meanwhile, former Indian skipper Mohammad Azharuddin had recently expressed his discontent over the timing of Kohli's asking the BCCI for a break in January to spend some time with his family, especially when a number of key players are down with respective injuries ahead of the South Africa tour.
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Reacting to Azharuddin’s remark, Azad said, “I am really very surprised by Azhar who is a great player, and former India captain who is also a part of the BCCI. He is the President of the Hyderabad Cricket Association. So, is he saying what the BCCI is saying because once he says anything or tweets anything on social media? It is taken as a part of an Association or part of a BCCI.”
He signed off by saying, “This may lead to a lot of problems within the BCCI and it just might be nothing. So, these irrelevant kinds of statements without any substance to them. I will call only speculations because if they are not saying then the board should come out.”
(With ANI Inputs)
