There is a general notion in cricket that whenever players struggle for form, they are either given excessive opportunities to prove themselves or dropped from the side. Meanwhile, the Indian management seems to follow a different tactic that is unwelcoming to the fans and the experts.
With a plethora of talents coming up in the IPL, it gives the board liberty to rest senior players for better workload management. Kapil Dev and Irfan Pathan have questioned the excessive rest given to the big guys who are struggling for form.
The latest to opine his views on the ‘rest’ model adopted by BCCI is the former cricketer turned analyst Aakash Chopra.
Chopra questioned the rest given to Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma for the upcoming ODI series against West Indies. Notably, Kohli last played a T20I for India back in February.
Adding on, Chopra pointed out that the players have had plenty of rest in the past three years due to COVID-19 disrupting the cricketing calendar.
Chopra, speaking on his YouTube channel, said, “What is with all the rest? How much rest do you want? Earlier, when a player used to be out of form, he was dropped and picked again only when he scored runs in domestic cricket. But at present, whenever someone is out of form, he rests. Are you guys not worried about it?”
He further adhered to the principle that whenever someone is out of form, they must play as much cricket as possible, whereas in reality, it’s the opposite for Virat Kohli.
A few days back, Irfan Pathan also tweeted saying ‘No one comes to form while resting,’
“When there were strict bio bubbles, there was no cricket for almost six months in 2020 from March to September. Next year again you play one-half of IPL, and then after a gap of three-four months, you played the second half. So, it’s already a rest of ten months in 2-3 years. You don’t get any more rest than this in professional sport,” Chopra added.
Chopra added another crucial point by supporting the youngsters who lose their position to the seniors for no reason.
He said, “It’s good that India keep giving opportunities to players like Ishan Kishan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Deepak Hooda, and Sanju Samson when the big players are rested. But what happens when these fringe players score runs. Do you tell them that they are dropped just because the big players are available now? Won’t they feel what wrong they have done?”